Morris Berman
| Morris Berman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 3, 1944 Rochester, New York, USA |
| Occupation | Educator, scholar, writer |
| Language | English, Spanish |
| Nationality | United States |
| Citizenship | United States (born), Mexico (currently lives) |
| Alma mater |
Cornell University (BA, Mathematics, 1966) Johns Hopkins University (PhD, History of Science, 1972) |
| Period | 1972 – present |
| Notable works | The Reenchantment of the World, The Twilight of American Culture |
| Notable awards |
Rollo May Center Grant (1992) Neil Postman Award (2013) |
| Website | |
| Dark Ages America | |
Rollo May Center Grant (1992)
Morris Berman (born 1944), is an American historian and social critic. He was born in Rochester, New York, going on to earn his BA in mathematics at Cornell University in 1966 and his PhD in the history of science at The Johns Hopkins University in 1972. As an academic humanist cultural critic, Berman specializes in Western cultural and intellectual history.
Berman has served on the faculties of a number of universities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Berman emigrated from the U.S. to Mexico in 2006, where he was a visiting professor at the Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico City from 2008 to 2009. During this period he continued writing for various publications including Parteaguas, a quarterly magazine.
Although an academic, Berman has written several books for a general audience. They deal with the state of Western civilization and with an ethical, historically responsible, or enlightened approach to living within it. His work emphasizes the legacies of the European Enlightenment and the historical place of present-day American culture.
As book reviewer George Scialabba points out, Berman's work is generally discussed in terms of the two trilogies he produced over a thirty-year span (between 1981 and 2011):
"Most historians would be content to have written one deeply researched and interpretively wide-ranging trilogy on a large and important subject. Berman has written two: one on alternative forms of consciousness and spirituality (The Re-enchantment of the World, Coming to Our Senses, Wandering God) and one on the decline of American civilization (The Twilight of American Culture, Dark Ages America, Why America Failed). The second trilogy, a grimly fascinating inventory of the pathologies of contemporary America and an unsparing portrait of American history and national character, is a masterpiece."
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Wikipedia