Bernard Wasserstein
Encyclopedia
Bernard Wasserstein is a professor
of history
. Wasserstein was born in London, and educated at the High School of Glasgow
and at Wyggeston Boys' Grammar School
, Leicester
. He gained a BA in Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford University in 1969.
Wasserstein's main area of interest is Jewish history
. His current areas of research involves three projects: first, a study of European Jewish intellectuals in the period after 1945; secondly, a book on the Jews in Europe on the eve of the Second World War; and thirdly, a micro-historical study of the relations of Jews with their neighbours in a small Polish town, Krakowiec, over the period 1772 to 1946.
Wasserstein currently teaches at the University of Chicago
, but has taught previously at the University of Glasgow
, Smith College
, Brandeis University
and Oxford University. Wasserstein's first teacher was Anna Freud
.
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
. Wasserstein was born in London, and educated at the High School of Glasgow
High School of Glasgow
The High School of Glasgow is an independent, co-educational day school in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded as the Choir School of Glasgow Cathedral in around 1124, it is the oldest school in Scotland, and the twelfth oldest in the United Kingdom. It remained part of the Church as the city's grammar...
and at Wyggeston Boys' Grammar School
Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College
Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College, or "Q.E" is a sixth form college in Leicester, England.-Admissions:There are 1,865 full-time 16-18 year-old students and 140 teaching staff. More than 40 subjects are offered at A Level. Somewhat against the national trend Mathematics and Sciences account...
, Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
. He gained a BA in Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford University in 1969.
Wasserstein's main area of interest is Jewish history
Jewish history
Jewish history is the history of the Jews, their religion and culture, as it developed and interacted with other peoples, religions and cultures. Since Jewish history is over 4000 years long and includes hundreds of different populations, any treatment can only be provided in broad strokes...
. His current areas of research involves three projects: first, a study of European Jewish intellectuals in the period after 1945; secondly, a book on the Jews in Europe on the eve of the Second World War; and thirdly, a micro-historical study of the relations of Jews with their neighbours in a small Polish town, Krakowiec, over the period 1772 to 1946.
Wasserstein currently teaches at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, but has taught previously at the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
, Smith College
Smith College
Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
, Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
and Oxford University. Wasserstein's first teacher was Anna Freud
Anna Freud
Anna Freud was the sixth and last child of Sigmund and Martha Freud. Born in Vienna, she followed the path of her father and contributed to the newly born field of psychoanalysis...
.
Selected work
- 1978 The British in Palestine: The Mandatory Government and the Arab-Jewish Conflict, analysing the first decade of the Palestine Mandate.
- 1979 Britain and the Jews of Europe, 1939-1945, examining the British record in relation to the Jewish genocide in Europe, focussing on British receptivity to Jewish immigration to the UK, to the Empire, and to Palestine, on British policy regarding relief supplies sent through the economic blockade to Nazi Europe, and on official reaction to proposals for the bombing of Auschwitz and for aid to Jewish resistance in occupied Europe.
- 1985 (edited with Frances Malino) The Jews in Modern France
- 1988 The Secret Lives of Trebitsch Lincoln (Yale University PressYale University PressYale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
, ISBN 0300040768), a 327-page biography of Trebitsch LincolnTrebitsch LincolnIgnatius Timothy Trebitsch-Lincoln a Hungarian Jewish adventurer who spent parts of his life as a Protestant missionary, Anglican priest, British Member of Parliament for Darlington, German right-wing politician and spy, and Buddhist abbot in China....
. Wasserstein describes this as 'an experiment in biography'. - 1992 Herbert Samuel: A Political Life, a political biography of the First High Commissioner under the British Mandate in Palestine and the successor to Lloyd George as leader of the British Liberal Party.
- 1996 Vanishing Diaspora: The Jews in Europe since 1945 proposed a radical reassessment of post-Hitler European Jewry; the picture of demographic decline, social disintegration, and cultural dissolution provoked considerable debate.
- In 1997, Bernard and his brother David wrote an article (available here http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-4633725.html) questioning the authenticity of City of Light, a book that purported to be an account translated by David SelbourneDavid SelbourneDavid Selbourne is a British political philosopher, social commentator and historian of ideas. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School, and Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied Jurisprudence, held the Winter Williams Law Scholarship, and was awarded a Paton Studentship and the Jenkins...
of the voyage by Italian Jacob D'Ancona to 13th Century China, years before Marco PoloMarco PoloMarco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
. - 1999 Secret War in Shanghai is an account of the rivalries of the great powers in North China during World War II, and was partly based, like the biography of Trebitsch Lincoln, on the archive of the British-controlled Shanghai Municipal Police Special Branch. This evoked some critical reactions on account of its portrait of widespread collaborationism among the foreign communities (including the British and the Americans) in Shanghai.
- 2001 Divided Jerusalem: Struggle for the Holy City returned to Wasserstein's earlier interest in the Arab-Israeli conflict. The book surveys the diplomatic history of the Jerusalem question over the past two hundred years, with a close focus on the period since 1967. The book emphasizes the historic roots of the current divisions in the city and the exploitation of religious devotion to the city by politicians of all three monotheistic faiths.
- 2003 Israelis and Palestinians: Why Do They Fight? Can They Stop? (Yale University Press) looks at the Israeli-Palestinian ConflictIsraeli-Palestinian conflictThe Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
in five chapters: People, Society, Environment, Territory, and Dynamics of Political Change. It focuses in particular on demography, social relations (especially the labour market), and environmental pressures, showing how these have shaped and continue to shape the nature of Israeli-Palestinian relations. - 2007 Barbarism and Civilization: A History of Europe in Our Time (Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
) is a general history of the continent since 1914.
Quote
- Referring to the MuslimMuslimA Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
attitude towards Jerusalem in the 10th-12th centuries: "as so often in the history of Jerusalem, heightened religious fervour may be explained in large measure by political necessity." (Divided Jerusalem, p11)