Irving Bernstein (1916–2001) was a distinguished labor historian and teacher. He earned a PhD at Harvard University where he studied with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. He taught from 1948 to 1986 at UCLA, doing research at the Institute of Industrial Relations and teaching in the Department of Political Science.
"...the train of developments that connects changes in social conditions to a changed consciousness is not simple. People, including ordinary people, harbor somewhere in their memories the building blocks of different and contradictory interpretations of what it is that is happening to them, of who should be blamed, and what can be done about it..."