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[NOTED HISTORIANS, NEW DEAL, UNION & LABOR HISTORY, FDR, UCLA, UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER]
"1937 INTERPRES" (University of Rochester)
On offer here is THE PERSONAL COLLEGE YEARBOOK OF NOTED LABOR HISTORIAN IRVING BERNSTEIN .
The 1937 University of Rochester annual is in excellent condition and features Bernstein as shown in his Senior portrait holding a smoking pipe.
In addition to the 1937 annual, this lot also includes:
- Bernstein's '50 yr Reunion' name tag
- An original, handwritten, 4 pp term paper Bernstein wrote in college on 'Japanese / Russian relations'.
- 2 Copies of the programs handed out at his graduation from his PhD program at Harvard in 1948.
- A recognition salutation in a custom 'University of Rochester' folder given to him at the 50th Class reunion.
A RARE and important group of artifacts celebrating the educational achievement and foreshadowing the professional excellencewhich followed Bernstein his whole life.
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Irving Bernstein (November 15, 1916 – September 25,2001) was an American professor of political science at the University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles and a noted labor historian.
Bernstein was born in 1916 in Rochester, New York. Hisparents were Latvian immigrants, and his father was a baker.
While in high school, Bernstein became deeplyinterested in history and the needs of working-class people. "I could seethe Depression all around me," he once recalled. "I became enormouslyinterested in the development of the labor movement, and I was tremendouslyimpressed by Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal."
Bernstein enrolled at the University of Rochester. Heworked at a variety of jobs—janitor, lifeguard, dishwasher in a sorority—andreceived support from his older brother to pay for his education. He earned abachelor's degree in 1937.
He obtained a master's degree in 1940 from HarvardUniversity.
In 1941, Bernstein became a fellow at the BrookingsInstitution in Washington, D.C. The same year, he married his wife, Fredrika.They had two daughters and a son.
After the outbreak of World War II, Bernstein took avariety of positions with the federal government. He was an industrialeconomist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1941 to 1942 and a hearingofficer at the National War Labor Board from 1942 to 1943.
When he became aware of Sweden's involvement inassisting Jews to flee Nazi-occupied Europe, he learned Swedish and became aSwedish language specialist for the Research and Analysis Branch of the Officeof Strategic Services.
After the war Bernstein returned to Harvard and earneda doctorate in 1948. His dissertation advisor was Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr.While writing his dissertation, Bernstein was chief of the Materials Section ofthe U.S. Conciliation Service from 1946 to 1947.
Career
In 1948, Bernstein was appointed a research professorat the UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations.
Bernstein returned briefly to government serviceduring the Korean War. In 1951, he was appointed director of the Case AnalysisDivision and chairman of the San Francisco Regional Wage Stabilization Board.He left the Board in 1952.
Bernstein became a professor in the department ofpolitical science at UCLA in 1960. He retired in 1987.
Research
Bernstein earned critical praise for the first twobooks of A History of the American Worker, a trilogy about theAmerican labor movement in the interwar period. The Lean Years: A Historyof the American Worker, 1920-1933 focuses on the decline of the Americanlabor movement following World War I. A decade later, he published TheTurbulent Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933-1941, in whichhe described American unions' growth under the New Deal. In both books,Bernstein argued that the New Deal and labor unions preserved democracy andcapitalism at a time when the survival of both was unclear, and that New Deallabor policy dramatically reoriented public policy away from employers towardworkers.
The third book in his historical trilogy, A Caring Society:The New Deal, the Worker, and the Great Depression was less well received. Thebook shied away from legislative enactments and union politics and examined thebroader political and social changes which occurred under the New Deal. Thebook was called "neither fresh nor complete," although critics saidit captured well the emotional tenor of the Great Depression and Roosevelt'impact on the American people.
Bernstein's work had a deep impact on labor studies.
"His contributions to UCLA and to labor historywere enormous," said Michael Lofchie, chairman of the university'spolitical science department. "He was the great documentarist of thedifficulties that labor organizations faced either in getting themselvesorganized or maintaining their organizational viability during the Depressionyears."
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., called him"...pre-eminent among historians of American labor history", andformer University of California president Clark Kerr declared him "...theleading historian of labor relations in the United States now active in thefield."
Bernstein was an officer of the National Academy ofArbitrators, and a member of the Federal Services Impasses Panel from 1979 to1980. In 1976, he served as president of the Industrial Relations ResearchAssociation.
Three times the UCLA Political Science Honor Societyproclaimed him "Professor of the Year" for his teaching skills.
Bernstein married his wife Fredrika around 1941. Theyhad three children.
Bernstein died on September 25, 2001.
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