The death of a Great Historian leads me to ask "Where did he come from? What was his muse?"

"[B]inary opposites fit nicely the formulation of history as written, but they do little to capture the messy, inchoate reality of history as lived." - Ira Berlin

We recently learned of the death of an iconic American historian, Ira Berlin.  I would like to delve into what you don't know.

The recent article in the Washington Post gives you a nice review of his groundbreaking work, as well as in the AP, New York Times, etc. Yet, I see history through a different lens.  I wanted to know more about the man and his early development.

Unfortunately, the web doesn’t give much background on the man himself, focusing on his illustrious work alone.  That’s too bad!  There is SO much left out!

Ira Berlin born May 27, 1941 in New York was the son of Louis Berlin and Sylvia Toby (Lebwohl).  Louis Berlin, Ira's father, was born in Russia in 1914 just prior to the Russia Revolution in 1917. Ira's grandfather, Morris, immigrated to New York in 1912 and the family followed in 1917.  There's a story there, but I could find no immediate immigration records (for a latter project).  The influx of Russian Jewish immigration to America around this time came from the Pale Settlement. This was western Russia in current day Latvia,Lithuania, and Poland. Not enough study of Russian history, especially Jewish Russian history is taught in our schools. It is important, and even more so today, to understand our own large Jewish American population. Interesting enough, you can learn a lot from another scholarly Berlin on philosophy, Russian history, and British/American alliances during WWII, Sir Isaiah Berlin. His history is worthy of another article!  He is a scholar amongst scholars!

But, most interesting...

Ira Berlin's youth was honed and developed at an illustrious high school in the Bronx, New York, DeWitt Clinton High.  If you are not familiar with this school you are really missing out.  The alumni of DeWitt Clinton is a litmus test for success and progressive thought, spanning the depth of black and Jewish activism of the 1930's on throughout the 1970's (makes me want to dig into the show "The Americans").  Alumni of DeWitt Clinton included James Baldwin, Baldwin's collaborator Richard Alvedon, Stan Lee, teacher Robert Meeropol (composer of "Strange Fruit"/Baldwin and others were his students), Norman Lear, Ralph Lauren, Burt Lancaster, Gary Marshall, Sugar Ray Robinson, Jerry Moss of A & M records, Edward Lewis (Essence magazine co-founder) just to name a few. Professor Berlin's mother was Ralph Lauren's accountant.  Ira Berlin graduated in the 1959 class at DeWitt Clinton High School, and Ralph Lauren graduated in 1957, so obviously they were well acquainted.  

Progressive socialist movements were well instanced in this area of New York dating as early as the 1930's.  The famous Rosenberg trial began in 1951, ending with the couples execution in 1953.  Their connection to Robert Meeropol (link above on Meeropol's name to my previous article) and W.E.B. Dubois leds to intriguing assumptions, I wish Professor Berlin were alive, to discuss.  The entire black and Jewish population in New York City and it's suburbs had to have been under great tensions during this McCarthy era time.

The school publication "the Magpie" was critically acclaimed throughout their illustrious history.  It's easy to see where one might be influenced to study African American history considering the surroundings of a young Ira Berlin.

I, for one, intend to study more of Ira Berlin's work and lectures/talks via the internet.  How about you?

Good reference for overall history of Russia:  A History of Russia, Nicholas W. Riasanovsky (student of Sir Isaiah Berlin at Oxford), various editions (1st edition, 1963, I have the 1969 second edition, most recently on it's 9th edition, 2000), Oxford University Press, London.