I ordered this book after reading glowing reviews and listening to a discussion of it on NPR. I felt a personal obligation as an anthropologist for over fifty years, but particularly as I taught a course on the history of anthropological theory for the last twenty years. My favorite topic in that course was certainly Boas and his circle of students, and their influence is profound to this day. Boas is a fascinating person who is worthy of more biography than he has received. The most important period in his life was certainly his first fieldwork, with Inuit peoples on Baffin Island. Boas went to Baffin as a novice geographer, but he was determined to live as an Inuit and because of that came to the revelation that they were superior to him in their environment. It changed his life and character, it changed anthropology, and it ultimately changed America. Boas was not a particularly good writer or speaker but he made a profound impression on others nonetheless. One of his most appealing characteristics was his integrity, and another his fearlessness. This book is a great telling of the story of Boas and some of his associates, but there is a lot left out as well. For example, if you read through the archives of The Nation during his time you will find many articles authored by him and his students, which shaped the liberal agenda we know today. Boas had many important students, and most of them carried his torch. King focuses on only four, but I like his choices. You can't tell the story of Boas without Ruth Benedict, who said the purpose of anthropology was to "make the world safe for human differences." This is a moral agenda, but it is based on their scientific understanding of race and gender. Boas and many of his students felt compelled to act on their knowledge, because they studied relatively powerless peoples who were oppressed and felt an obligation to act in their interests, even when it might jeopardize their careers. This is still true today. I have found that it is one of the most compelling attractions of anthropology as a course of study among college students. There are not that many job opportunities in anthropology, and it is not likely to make you rich. But it helps people understand the world they live in, particularly an increasingly global and diverse world, and it helps them find a moral compass. Margaret Mead is the most famous anthropologist ever, and a great deal has been written about her, but she is crucial to the story, particularly as she extended Boas's campaign against racism to a struggle against sexism and championed women and children. Zora Hurston is a well-known figure, but only of late, and entirely because of her contributions to literature. Her anthropological life is relatively unknown, so King does a great service in including it. Ella Deloria is a complete unknown, at least to me, I am sorry to say. She did not study anthropology, but she played an important role, like Hurston, in conducting fieldwork for Boas and others. As an anthropologist, Boas was particularly interested in precontract Indian life and culture, and historical reconstruction, but Hurston and Deloria taught him that the contemporary situation of Indians and African Americans was also worthy of study. The reader will also learn about the rampant racism and sexism of the Boasian period. Readers may be surprised and shocked to learn about the racism of his day and the popularity of fascism in America. Boas engaged the entire field of anthropology against racism and authoritarianism, although we can't say they alone won that battle. It was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that committed Americans to a war against fascism, and the facts of the holocaust revealed after the war that caused us to reject racist extremes. You could argue that Boas and his circle laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights movement of the Sixties, but now it seems that we are fighting this battle once again.