A Franz Boas Reader: The Shaping of American Anthropology, 1883-1911 (Midway Reprints)

The Shaping of American Anthropology is a book which is outstanding in many respects. Stocking is probably the leading authority on Franz Boas; he understands Boas's contributions to American anthropology, as well as anthropology in general, very well . . . He is, in a word, the foremost historian of anthropology in the world today . . . The reader is both a collection of Boas's papers and a solid 23-page introduction to giving the background and basic assumptions of Boasian anthropology David Schneider, University of Chicago "While Stocking has not attempted to present a person biography, nevertheless Boas's personal characteristics emerge not only in his scholarly essays, but perhaps more vividly in his personal correspondence . . . Stocking is to be commended for collecting this material together in a most interesting and enjoyable reader" Gustav Thaiss, American Anthropologist