Description
Book SynopsisFranz Boas defined the concept of cultural relativism and reoriented the humanities and social sciences away from race science toward an antiracist and anticolonialist understanding of human biology and culture.
Franz Boas: Shaping Anthropology and Fostering Social Justice is the second volume in Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt’s two-part biography of the renowned anthropologist and public intellectual.
Zumwalt takes the reader through the most vital period in the development of Americanist anthropology and Boas’s rise to dominance in the subfields of cultural anthropology, physical anthropology, ethnography, and linguistics. Boas’s emergence as a prominent public intellectual, particularly his opposition to U.S. entry into World War I, reveals his struggle against the forces of nativism, racial hatred, ethnic chauvinism, scientific racism, and uncritical nationalism.
Boas was instrumental in the American cultural renaissance of the 1920s a
Trade Review"Zumwalt's lively style and abundant use of quotes make readers feel they are present."—A. B. Kehoe,
Choice“Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt knows Franz Boas, his world, and his students as no one else. In this powerful work she presents the struggles for both scientific truth and social justice of the person who made American anthropology the powerful intellectual, scholarly, and moral endeavor it was for most of the twentieth century.”—Herbert S. Lewis, author of
In Defense of Anthropology: An Investigation of the Critique of Anthropology“This even-handed, intimate portrait of Franz Boas is timely. Zumwalt hangs Boas’s North Star—that the more you learn of our world and individuals in it, the less you will feel yourself and your native language and belief system superior to others—in today’s dark skies.”—Nancy Mattina, author of
Uncommon Anthropologist: Gladys Reichard and Western Native American Culture“The biography of Franz Boas is a very important subject, especially to those interested in the history of anthropology, and I expect this volume, along with the first, will become a standard historical resource in coming years. This book makes an important contribution as an account of Boas’s career emphasizing his ongoing struggles at Columbia. This makes for a poignant narrative and a striking contrast with his growing fame and subsequent reputation.”—Grant Arndt, author of
Ho-Chunk Powwows and the Politics of TraditionTable of ContentsList of Illustrations
Series Editors’ Introduction
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Note on Translations
1. Building the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University
2. Franz Boas and His Early Students, 1901–1915
3. Race and the Quest for Social Justice
4. Folklore and Ruins in Mexico and Puerto Rico
5. Conflict, War, and Censure
6. Preponderance of Women Students
7. Loss and Loneliness
8. The Last Cohort of Boas’s Students
9. Rescuing Scientists
10. After Retirement
Appendix: Tribal and Historical Designations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
