Reinhard Bendix was born February 25, 1916, in Berlin, Germany, the son of attorney Ludwig Bendix and Else (Henschel) Bendix. In his native land, Bendix participated in the anti-fascist organization Neu Beginnen. Then, in 1938, he immigrated to the United States as a political refugee. He married Jane L. Walstrum on July 5, 1940. The couple had three children: Karen Moya, Erik Michael, and John Steven. He obtained a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1943. Bendix began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1947, and he would remain affiliated with the university throughout his career. From 1968 to 1970, he directed the university's Education Abroad program. Throughout the course of his career, Bendix also accepted the positions as the Theodor Huss Professor as the Free University of Berlin (1694-5), visiting professor at St. Catherine's College, Oxford University (1965), fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford University (1971), and public lecturer. Bendix was also a member of several organizations. He was a member of the American Philosophical Society and the Pacific Sociological Society. Bendix also served as vice-president of the International Sociological Association and as president of the American Sociological Association and vice president of the International Sociological Association.

Bendix's writings often focus on authority and economic relations in Russia, Japan, and Western Europe. Among these books are: Work and Authority in Industry, which has been published in Spanish, German, Italian, and Japanese; Class, Status and Power, Social Mobility in Industrial Society, which has been published in Polish, Japanese, and Spanish; Nation-Building and Citizenship, Embattled Reason, Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait, which has been published in German, Japanese, Hindi, Polish, and Italian; and Scholarship and Partisanship. His autobiography From Berlin to Berkeley: German-Jewish Identities was published a few years before his death from a heart attack, February 28, 1991, in Berkeley, California.