He attended Yale University as a graduate student and was friends with Tom Wolfe while there.
An advocate for the importance of history as a public discussion, he has served in various capacities in television and film production, notably for PBS.
His last book published during his lifetime was Beyond the Revolution: A History of American Thought From Paine to Pragmatism (2009).
[1] Goetzmann was born in Washington[2] and raised in the American Midwest, notably in St. Paul, Minnesota, where his family once rented an apartment previously occupied by the bank robber John Dillinger.
[1] The Dillinger-apartment experience was one of many that drew him to the study of history as a dramatic narrative populated by colorful individuals and sweeping movements.