Morris Berman

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 Ph.D. 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.

Major themes

Despite his status as an academic, Berman has written several books for a general audience.^[1] 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. His books include Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline (Wiley, 2011), Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire (Norton, 2006), The Twilight of American Culture (Norton, 2000), Wandering God: A Study in Nomadic Spirituality (State University of New York Press, 2000), Coming to Our Senses: Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West (1989), and The Reenchantment of the World (Cornell University Press, 1981).

Academic career

Berman has served on the faculties of a number of universities in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and recently taught as a visiting scholar in the sociology department at The Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C.. 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. Also during this time he continued writing for various publications including Parteaguas, a quarterly magazine.^[2]

Recognition

In 1990, Morris Berman received the Governor’s Writers Award (Washington State) for his book Coming to Our Senses.^[3] In 1992, he was the recipient of the first annual Rollo May Center Grant for Humanistic Studies. In 2000, Berman's book The Twilight of American Culture was named one of the ten most recommended books of the year by the Christian Science Monitor^[4] and was named a “Notable Book” by The New York Times Book Review.^[5] In 2013 he received the "Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity" from the Media Ecology Association.^[6] As of 2014 Berman continues to live in Mexico.^[7]

Selected works

• Social Change & Scientific Organization: The Royal Institution 1799 – 1844. 1978.  – nonfiction
• The Reenchantment of The World. 1981.  – nonfiction
• Coming to Our Senses: Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West. 1989.  – nonfiction
• Wandering God: A Study in Nomadic Spirituality. 2000.  – nonfiction
• The Twilight of American Culture. 2000.  – nonfiction
• Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire. 2006.  – nonfiction
• A Question of Values. 2010.  – essay collection - nonfiction
• Destiny. 2010.  – novel - fiction
• Counting Blessings. 2011.  – poetry
• Why America Failed: The Roots of Imperial Decline. 2011.  – nonfiction
• Spinning Straw Into Gold: Straight Talk for Troubled Times. 2013.  – a philosophical memoir - nonfiction
• Neurotic Beauty: An Outsider Looks At Japan. 2015.  – nonfiction

References

External links

• Berman's weblog
• Berman's Curriculum Vitae (RTF)
• Why America Failed interview on Media Matters with Bob McChesney (4 Dec 2011)
• Dark Ages America interview on Media Matters with Bob McChesney (30 July 2006)
• Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire on C-SPAN Book TV (19 May 2006)
• Two short videos of an interview with Morris Berman On the Decline of Empire: 'Why America Failed', on Conversations with great minds
• Why The American Empire Was Destined To Collapse — Nomi Prins Interviews Morris Berman
• Waiting for the barbarians – essay first published in The Guardian, Friday 5 October 2001