Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Richard B. Bernstein (1956-2023)

credit

Although the sad news of the unexpected death of Richard B. Bernstein has circulated among legal historians via email and social media since Monday, we have been waiting for an obituary to notice it here. We can now link to a moving Twitter thread by Joanne Freeman. (Read the replies and the "quote tweets" for recollections by many others.) 

We will simply add that we join in the many expressions of shock at his death and in the recollections of his kindness, generosity, commitment to teaching, command of the history of the founding era, and deep and almost ingenuous love of the historical craft that touched even the most worldly scholar.  He was a unique presence in the political and constitutional history of early America; his absence will long be felt by those who came to know him well in the ASLH, NYU's legal history workshop, and other venues. 

We will post a more formal obituary when it becomes available. 

--Dan Ernst and Karen Tani

Update:  A funeral service for Richard Bernstein will take place on  Friday, June 30, 2023, from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM at Sinai Chapels, 114-03 Queens Blvd, Forest Hills, NY 11375. The memorial page is here.  His informative biographical page on Amazon is here.  H/t: JQB, EMF.