Richard Bernstein grew up on a chicken farm in a small town in Eastern Connecticut, went to the University of Connecticut, and then got the "All but Dissertation" degree at Harvard University in History and East Asian Languages, specializing in modern China.  Not feeling especially suited for the world of academia, he became journalist, first at Time magazine and then, for twenty-four years, at The New York Times.  Over the years, he's reported from some two dozen countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia, from Mozambique to Cambodia, Lebanon to Poland. In all, he spent fourteen years as a foreign correspondent for Time and The Times, his full-time postings including Hong Kong, Beijing, Paris, and Berlin.  In between these postings, he was a Metro reporter for The Times as well as the paper's national cultural correspondent, and a daily book critic.

Mr. Bernstein's articles and commentaries have appeared in The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and Real Clear Politics.  He’s written ten Books, among them: Fragile Glory: A Portrait of France and the French; Ultimate Journey: Retracing the Path of an Ancient Buddhist Monk Who Crossed Asia in Search of Enlightenment; and, with Ross H. Munro, The Coming Conflict with China.  His new book, Only in America: Al Jolson and the Jazz Singer, is due out in June 2024.

Since retiring from The Times in 2007, Mr. Bernstein has been a freelance writer and editor, writing his own books and helping other people write theirs.  He lives in Brooklyn, NY, with his wife Zhongmei Li.