Morris Berman (born 1944), is an American historian and social critic. Berman was born in Rochester, New York. He earned 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 he specializes in Western cultural and intellectual history.
Major themes
Despite his status as an academic, Berman has written several books for a general audience. 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. As of 2012 he continues to live in Mexico and he writes for Parteaguas quarterly magazine, among other publications.
