Bernard Weisberger

Bernard Allen Weisberger (August 15, 1922 – April 9, 2024) was 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 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]

In 1942, he graduated from Columbia University 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. He died on April 9, 2024, at the age of 101.^[8]