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The story of the book
Story of the Book
I first learned of “Papa Franz,” as Boas’ women students called him, from Margaret Mead, who chaired the board of an organization I ran, the Scientists’ Institute for Public Information. Then, upon becoming very interested in the racist idea of racial superiority, I ran into him again. On race, all roads lead to Boas.
I pursued the issue and wrote a few articles about Boas in both peer-reviewed and popular outlets. And then I began to realize what a fascinating person he was, having an impact not only on racial issues but on the politics of his era as well.
There are many books written about Franz Boas, but none that adequately weave his very active political career into his ground-breaking anthropology. I thought I would try to write a book interlacing the two. Fifteen years later, the book has appeared.
The American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia has the most extensive collection of his letters, 74 linear feet of them. He wrote at least three or four letters every day, and he lived a long life. Do you know the famous phrase used by Robert Caro, the chronicler of the lives of Robert Moses and Lyndon Johnson? When he asked how to be an investigative reporter, he was told to “Turn Every Page.” It is the title of the wonderful movie telling the story is his relationship with his editor, Robert Gottlieb.
Well, I had to turn every page. At least look at every letter. Some were trivial and could be ignored. But many had to be read. Which is why it took fifteen years.
In addition, Douglas Cole, who wrote an early biographer of Boas, had an extensive collection in the BC Archives in Victoria, Canada. I spent many pleasant weeks in Victoria poring over that collection. I learned a lot.
And then there is the American Museum of Natural History. It has a treasure trove of pictures of and by Boas. Hours spent there supplied the many pictures that grace the interior of the book.
Along the way, I got very lucky. I hired three of my former New School students, Josef Soloff, Christi Byrd, and Micah Campbell-Smith. They did extraordinary research work and contributed some of the best writing in the book. I have always been blessed by good students at The New School, but these three were superstars. So much so that we are cooperating on a new book “Life and Death in the Anthropocene” for which we will be four co-authors. I am thrilled to be working with them.
There you have it. The story of the book.
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