Richard B. Bernstein - Life

Life

He is the oldest son of Fred Bernstein (1922-2001) and Marilyn Bernstein (1927--); his siblings are the artist Linda A. Bernstein (1958-2004) and the engineer, technology specialist, musician, and expert on BMW Steven J. Bernstein (1962--). He was educated in the New York City public schools, graduating from Stuyvesant High School in 1973. He attended Amherst College, where he was graduated with a B.A. magna cum laude in 1977 in American Studies. While at Amherst, he was a research assistant to Henry Steele Commager. He was graduated from Harvard Law School with a J.D. in November 1980.

After three years practicing law, Bernstein left the legal profession to return to the study of history, doing graduate work at New York University. From 1983 to the present he has been a member of the New York University Legal History Colloquium, and he has been active in the writing of legal and constitutional history and in activities to promote the historical profession.

From 1984 to 1987 he was research curator for the Constitution Bicentennial Project of The New York Public Library, working with Kym S. Rice under the supervision of Richard B. Morris, Gouverneur Morris Professor of History Emeritus at Columbia University. Among the products of this project was Bernstein's first book, Are We to Be a Nation? The Making of the Constitution, published by Harvard University Press. From 1987 to 1990 Bernstein was historian on the staff of the New York City Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, and from 1989 to 1990 he was research director of the New York State Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution.

In the spring of 1988 Bernstein was a visiting part-time lecturer in history at the Newark, New Jersey campus of Rutgers University. In 1991, he was named an adjunct assistant professor of law at New York Law School, where he has taught courses on American legal history and law and literature ever since. In 2007 he was named Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law. In 1997-1998 he also was the Daniel M. Lyons Visiting Professor of History at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

From 1997 to 2004 Bernstein was co-editor of book reviews for H-LAW, the listserv co-sponsored by H-NET (Humanities and Social Sciences Network On-Line) and the American Society for Legal HIstory. He is also a member of H-LAW's editorial board. For three years he served on the editorial board of Law and Social Inquiry, the journal of the American Bar Foundation. In 2004 he was elected to the board of directors of the American Society for Legal History for a three-year term (2004-2007); in 2011, he was elected for a second term as a director of the society.

In the fall semester of 2011, Bernstein joined the Skadden, Arps Honors Program in Legal Studies at the City College of New York as an adjunct professor of political science. In the fall semester, he taught American Constitutional Development; in the spring semester of 2012 he taught Early American Political Development. In the fall semester of 2012 he again taught Early American Political Development and a section of the one-semester survey course on American history; in the spring semester of 2013 he is teaching two sections of the survey course, and a political science course on the American judiciary.

In 1993, Bernstein changed his byline from Richard B. Bernstein to R. B. Bernstein to avoid confusion with the several other Richard Bernsteins active in journalism and law.

In November 2002, in addition to his scholarly activities, Bernstein became director of online operations at Heights Books, Inc., a used-bookstore in Brooklyn. He ended his connection with Heights Books when the business closed at the end of February, 2011.