Arnie Bernstein

Arnie Bernstein is a nonfiction writer based in Chicago. He is working on Swastika Nation: Fritz Kuhn and the Rise and Fall of the German American Bund, a new book detailing a pro-Nazi movement that swept the United States in the 1930s. Swastika Nation is coming in fall 2013 from St. Martin's Press.

His award-winning 2009 book Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing, brought to light the forgotten story of a madman who detonated a rural Michigan school building on May 18, 1927, killing 38 children and six adults. Gregg Olsen, author of the New York Times best seller Starvation Heights praised the book, writing: “With the meticulous attention to detail of a historian and a storyteller's eye for human drama, Bernstein shines a beam of truth on a forgotten American tragedy. Heartbreaking and riveting.”

Bernstein is the author of three books on Chicago history, which earned praise from the late United States Senator Paul Simon (D-Illinois) and Roger Ebert. In his introduction to Bernstein’s book “The Movies Are: Carl Sandburg’s Film Reviews & Essays, Ebert wrote: “Arnie Bernstein has performed an extraordinary accomplishment in bringing this book into being….(He) adds great knowledge and insight…providing background, orientation, historical information, helpful footnotes. This is a book that reopens a chapter of journalism and history that might have remained closed forever.”

Bernstein has been interviewed by many media outlets, including The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Chicago Tribune, National Public Radio, BBC Radio, television, documentaries and webcasts. He was honored for his work by the the State Library of Michigan and the Illinois State Library; and won grants and awards from The Puffin Foundation and Warner Brothers Studios. Bernstein is a member of The Author’s Guild, PEN, The Chicago Writer's Association, and The Society of Midland Authors. He is represented by Leigh Feldman of Writers House, New York.

Speaking engagements include presentations at DePaul University, the University of Chicago, Columbia College-Chicago, and many others. He has given speeches and served on panel discussions at the Chicago History Museum, the Illinois State Library, the Gene Siskel Film Center, as well as numerous public and private libraries, bookstores and reading groups.

When it comes to philosophy, Arnie follows the words of notable sage Groucho Marx: “I must say I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book.”