Professor Stephen Berk: From Brooklyn Beginnings to Union College

Professor Stephen Berk of Union College sits down with host Pat DiCerbo to trace a life in history… from Bensonhurst childhood memories of FDR’s death to a career spent teaching Russian, Jewish, Holocaust, Middle Eastern, and European history. Berk shares the Madison High School culture that produced Nobel laureates, senators, and a young Bernie Sanders… his path through Penn, Chicago, and Columbia… and why his dissertation on Admiral Kolchak still shapes how he reads Putin and today’s Russia.They tackle tough, current questions with a historian’s perspective: China’s long memory, Russian siege mentality, the line between criticism of Israel and antisemitism, and how incendiary language warps public life. Berk also recounts a viral campus moment after Oct. 7 and why he remains optimistic about America.Highlights: - Brooklyn at its zenith… and a 5-year-old’s memory of FDR’s passing - Madison High School’s “drive”… Schumer, Sanders, Blumberg, Ginsburg - Penn to Chicago to Columbia… and the Kolchak thesis in Siberia - Why Dewey stayed quiet on the broken Japanese code in ’44 - China’s century of humiliation… history towering over the present - Explaining Putin without exonerating him - The Oct. 7 aftermath on campus… lines, labels, and leadership - Why words matter… and why Berk is still bullish on America - Reading as a civic duty… and owning our biases