Iver Bernstein


Professor of History, African and African American Studies, and American Culture Studies

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Bernstein’s scholarly interests focus on the processes by which the United States political regime was invented, reinvented, ruptured and re-created over the long era of the Revolution and Founding through the Civil War and Reconstruction and the ways in which the traumas of slavery, race and war–and the representations of those traumas–shaped those dramas of creative destruction.

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Washington People: Iver Bernstein

Historian Iver Bernstein, PhD, takes an exhaustive, interdisciplinary approach to any topic he studies. Colleagues say he asks the questions that no one else thinks to ask and brings fresh perspectives to the long-ago past. Bernstein is passionate about revealing unspoken or unremembered history that is suppressed in national stories. His book on The New York City Draft Riots is considered by some to be “the gold standard” on the topic.

Renowned African-American historian to be visiting scholar

Robin D.G. Kelley, Ph.D., one of the country’s pre-eminent scholars in African-American history, will serve as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University Feb. 28-March 1. Kelley, who is professor of history and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California, is a leading scholar of the modern civil rights movement, jazz studies and African-American music and culture.

Pre-eminent African-American studies historian to serve as Distinguished Visiting Scholar

Robin D.G. Kelley, Ph.D., one of the country’s pre-eminent scholars in African-American history, will serve as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Washington University Feb. 28-March 1. During his visit, he will give two public talks. Kelley, who is professor of history and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California (USC), is a leading scholar of the modern civil rights movement, jazz studies and African-American music and culture.