James A. Berlin

James A. Berlin (January 7, 1942 – February 2, 1994) was an American scholar, professor, writer, and theorist in the field of composition studies, renowned for his contributions to the history of rhetoric and composition theory.

Born in Hamtramck, Michigan, Berlin attended St. Florian High School. He earned his BA from Central Michigan University and completed his Ph.D. in Victorian literature at the University of Michigan in 1975. Throughout his career, he held positions as a professor of English at Wichita State University, the University of Cincinnati, where he directed first-year English from 1981 to 1985, and Purdue University from 1987 to 1994. Additionally, Berlin served as a visiting professor at the University of Texas and Penn State University.

Berlin was actively involved in a fellowship-in-residence, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), alongside notable figures in contemporary rhetorical theory, including Lisa Ede, Robert Inkster, Charles Kneupper, Linda Flower, Janice Lauer, and Victor Vitanza. During this time, he collaborated with Richard Young on the topic of rhetorical invention. Berlin's academic journey led him to deeply explore the works of Karl Marx, and he later integrated Göran Therborn's version of Marxist ideology into his research, finding in Therborn a comrade who recognized the power and function of rhetorical principles.

On February 2, 1994, Berlin died following a heart attack.

Major publications
Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures: Refiguring College English Studies. Urbana, Illinois: NCTE, 1996.

Rhetoric and Reality: Writing Instruction in American Colleges. 1900–1985. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1987.

Writing Instruction in Nineteenth-Century American Colleges. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1984.

"Cultural Studies." Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition. Ed. Theresa Enos. NY: Garland, 1996. 154–56.

"Poststructuralism, Cultural Studies, and the Composition Classroom." Rhetoric Review 11 (Fall 1992): 16–33. Rpt. Professing the New Rhetoric. Ed. Theresa Enos and Stuart C. Brown. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1994. 461–480.

"Revisionary Histories of Rhetoric: Politics, Power, and Plurality." Writing Histories of Rhetoric. Ed. Victor J. Vitanza. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1994. 112–127.

"Composition Studies and Cultural Studies: Collapsing Boundaries." Into the Field: Sites of Composition Studies. Ed. Anne Ruggles Gere. NY: MLA,1993. 99–116.

"Composition and Cultural Studies." Composition and Resistance. Eds. Hurlbert, C. Mark and Michael Blitz. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1991.

"Postmodernism, Politics, and Histories of Rhetorics." PRE/TEXT 11.3–4 (1990): 169–187.

"Rhetoric and Ideology in the Writing Class." College English 50 (1988): 477–494.

Berlin, James A., et al. Octalog. "The Politics of Historiography." Rhetoric Review 7 (1988): 5–49.

"Revisionary History: The Dialectical Method." PRE/TEXT 8.1–2 (1987): 47–61.

"Rhetoric and Poetics in the English Department: Our Nineteenth-Century Inheritance." College English 47 (1985): 531–533.

"Contemporary Composition: The Major Pedagogical Theories." College English 44 (1982): 765–777.

Berlin, James A., and Robert P. Inkster. "Current-Traditional Rhetoric: Paradigm and Practice." Freshman English News 8. 3 (Winter 1980): 1–4, 13–14.

"Richard Whately and Current-Traditional Rhetoric." College English 42 (September 1980): 10–17.