Thomas Paul Bern­stein is Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus of Polit­i­cal Sci­ence at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty, where he served from 1975 to 2007. Pri­or to this, he held aca­d­e­m­ic posi­tions at Yale Uni­ver­si­ty (1969−1975) and Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty (1966−1969). His pri­ma­ry field is com­par­a­tive pol­i­tics, with a focus on com­mu­nist sys­tems, par­tic­u­lar­ly in Chi­na and Rus­sia. Bern­stein has authored numer­ous books and arti­cles on these top­ics, and his bib­li­og­ra­phy is avail­able upon request. Cur­rent­ly, he lec­tures at the Osh­er Life­long Learn­ing Insti­tute, with his recent work, Holocaust.