Funeral Details

Distinguished Professor, author of 20 books and over 100 articles on American History. Beloved husband of Rita Mendelsohn, devoted father of Jonathan (Deborah Mudd Weisberger) of Brevard, North Carolina: Dr. Lise Weisberger (Malcolm Rich) of Skokie, Illinois; and Beth Weisberger (Tim Fishbaugh) of Lakewood, Colorado; loving grandfather of Abigail, Miriam and Rebecca Rich, Leo Weisberger and Sidney Lucas, and Leah Fishbaugh. Service Thursday, 2:00PM at Chicago Jewish Funerals, 8851 Skokie Blvd (at Niles Center Road), Skokie. Interment, Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Mikva Challenge 200 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60604, mikvachallenge.org, or The Jewish Council on Urban Affairs, 4411 N Ravenswood Ave, Ste 300, Chicago IL 60640, jcua.org. To attend the funeral live stream, please visit our website. Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals - Skokie Chapel, 847.229.8822, www.cjfinfo.com


Bernie had an immensely distinguished scholarly career, becoming a celebrated scholar, teacher, and public intellectual. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1950 under the supervision of the prominent scholar of the Civil War Era Avery Craven—whose racist work Bernie ultimately went on to contest. A beloved teacher, Bernie gained lifelong allegiance from a legion of students through positions at Swarthmore, Antioch, Wayne State, the University of Chicago, Rochester, and Vassar. Yet Bernie chafed at university pieties and, above all wishing to write, he eventually left academe to concentrate on his scholarly work as well as on public writing (especially for American Heritage magazine). Bernie ultimately wrote or edited more than twenty books on subjects ranging from Civil War reporters, Protestant religious revivalism, General Motors, the progressive La Follette family of Wisconsin, and finally 2006’s When Chicago Ruled Baseball: The Cubs-White Sox World Series of 1906. Bernie’s political reflections, which continued until he reached the age of 95, were full of highly insightful connections between past and present--not to mention the fire for progressive social justice that he believed to be the true foundation of American history. He was arguably proudest of his intellectual partnerships with some of the country’s most influential cultural figures, particularly Bill Moyers and Ken Burns, as they worked to shape what Bernie fervently believed to be a common, unifying American Story. Throughout, Bernie wrote with grace, flair, and an exquisitely humane sensibility. With considerable justification, in 2006 the History News Network named Bernie one of its distinguished “History Doyens.”
- Robert Johnston, PhD