R. B. Bernstein was Lecturer in Law and Politics at the City College of New York and distinguished adjunct professor of law at New York Law School. An expert on the American Revolution, the origins of the Constitution, and the early republic, he was a graduate of Amherst College and the Harvard Law School and did his graduate work in history at New York University. He was the author of thirteen books, including Thomas Jefferson (2003) and The Education of John Adams (2020).