After the Storm

"What distinguishes Litwack is that despite his elite professorial status and international reputation, he's at heart a teacher. He teaches by telling stories, mainly stories of the unsung.
"He grew up in Santa Barbara, the son of working-class Russian Jewish immigrants. His father was a gardener and his mother a seamstress. The experiences of his parents and neighbors, most of whom were Mexican, inspired his interest in people excluded from the history books.
"His patient, gravelly voice seems to have been honed at the kitchen table in the old neighborhood but has been adapted for lecture halls jammed with freshmen. For years, Litwack has set a high standard for tens of thousands of students, whether they care about history or not: dig elbow-deep into the primary source materials of America's contradictory record and come up with your own stories and your own critical stance. History is defined as the study of the past but with his students Litwack adds a qualifier: '... and all its splendid messiness.'"

The San Francisco Chronicle marks the retirement of Professor Leon Litwack from the University of California, Berkeley.