author
Robert Joseph Kerner
1887–1956
A pioneering American historian of Eastern Europe, he helped build Slavic studies into a serious field in the United States. His work at Berkeley and his wide-ranging scholarship made him an important guide to the politics and history of Russia and its neighbors.
1 Audiobook
The Russian Revolution; The Jugo-Slav Movement
by Alexander Petrunkevitch, Frank Alfred Golder, Samuel N. (Samuel Northrup) Harper, Robert Joseph Kerner
About the author
Born in Chicago on August 26, 1887, to a Czech family, he studied at the University of Chicago and later earned his doctorate at Harvard. He taught at the University of Missouri before moving to the University of California, Berkeley, where he spent most of his career teaching eastern European and Russian history.
He became especially known for shaping Slavic studies as an academic field in America. At Berkeley he helped create a strong center for the study of Russia and eastern Europe, and he later founded the Institute of Slavic Studies. His scholarship focused on modern eastern Europe, and he was widely respected as an expert on the region's history and politics.
Beyond teaching, he wrote and edited works that opened western readers to Slavic history and culture, including bibliographies and historical studies. He died in Berkeley on November 29, 1956, leaving behind a lasting influence on the study of eastern Europe in the United States.