Richard Bernstein, an author and a former correspondent and critic for the New York Times "whose deep knowledge of Asia and Europe illuminated reporting from Tiananmen Square to the Bastille, and who wrote things as he saw them in 10 books driven by unflinching intellectual curiosity," died March 31, the Times reported. He was 80. Bernstein's journalism "had sweep, an elegiac sense of the tragic inherent in human affairs, and often a subtly crafted argumentation rooted in thorough on-the-ground reporting."
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| Richard Bernstein (photo: Michael Lionstar) |
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"I frankly do not like books that start from the premise that matters are too complex to allow for any generalizations," he wrote in Fragile Glory, his 1990 portrait of France, a country "someplace midway between a certain persistent dream and an immovable reality." For Bernstein, it was a nation, that sought to "glow with the torch of civilization itself" even as it writhed over its "military and moral collapse in the face of the Nazis."
The first-generation son of Jewish immigrants from Hungary and Belarus, Bernstein grew up on a chicken farm in rural Connecticut. From that experience "he took a distaste for posturing, a suspicion of fashion, an impatience with taboos and a deep belief in American possibility," the Times wrote.
"A Jewish intellectual from a chicken farm, he never swerved from his attachment to what America should stand for," author Kati Marton said in an interview.
In his book Dictatorship of Virtue: Multiculturalism and the Battle for America's Future (1994), Bernstein argued that attempts to promote diversity had often stifled diversity, a view that won him "more enemies than friends even as it presaged ideological fissures destined to grow," the Times noted, adding that he "never shrank from difficult subjects: In 2009, he published The East, the West, and Sex: A History, an exploration of the connection between sex and power told through the encounters of Western explorers, merchants and conquerors with Eastern cultures."
"He believed in truth, no matter where the chips fell," said David Margolick, a journalist and author. "Nobody had handed him anything. His integrity was absolute. He wrote what he thought without looking over his shoulder."
Bernstein's other books include From the Center of the Earth: The Search for the Truth About China (1982); The Coming Conflict with China (1997, with Ross. H. Munro); Ultimate Journey: Retracing the Path of an Ancient Buddhist Monk Who Crossed Asia in Search of Enlightenment (2001); Out of the Blue: The Story of September 11, 2001, from Jihad to Ground Zero (2002); and Only in America: Al Jolson and the Jazz Singer (2024).
Just before he died, Bernstein told his younger sister, Judy Peritz: "We all know death comes. I would have loved to have more, but now understand that I won't. I accept that and am not afraid. I have lived a really wonderful and interesting life."