Bernard Allen Weisberger (born August 15, 1922) is an American historian. ^[1] Weisberger taught American history at several universities including the University of Chicago, Wayne State University, and the University of Rochester, where he was chair of the department. ^[2] He has written more than a dozen books and worked on documentaries with Bill Moyers and Ken Burns. His article "The Dark and Bloody Ground of Reconstruction Historiography," which received the Charles Ramsdell Prize is considered a standard in the study of the Reconstruction period. ^[3]

Weisberger was a contributing editor of American Heritage, where which he was a columnist for ten years. ^[4] He published 120 articles in the magazine, with his first appearing in 1955. ^[5]

Weisberger was also a member of the National Hillel Commission and a participant in the civil rights movement. ^[1]

He graduated from Columbia University in 1943 and joined the Signal Intelligence Service, which later became the National Security Agency. He studied the Japanese language in a crash course at Columbia, and then served in the Pacific translating intercepted Japanese radio messages that had been decoded by cryptanalysts, but still needed translation. ^[6] After the war, he received his PhD from University of Chicago. ^[7]

Weisberger turned 100 in August 2022.

Selected books

His books include:

• The La Follettes of Wisconsin: Love and Politics in Progressive America (University of Wisconsin Press, 1994)
• America Afire: Adams, Jefferson, and the Revolutionary Election of 1800 (Morrow, 2000)
• When Chicago Ruled Baseball: The Cubs-White Sox World series of 1906 (Harper Collins, 2006).

References

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN