This is an absorbing, expertly researched, and much-needed treatment of Margaret Mead. It is the definitive book about Mead's fame and her complicities in creating it. -- George E. Marcus, University of California, Irvine Engaging and illuminating, this book shows how Margaret Mead deftly worked with different media forms, and how her celebrity evolved with transformations in popular media. Margaret Mead renders the anthropologist's life with new meaning and insight, and helps us to understand why Mead emerged as a cultural figure and icon. -- Faye Ginsburg, New York University
List of Illustrations ix Preface xi Acknowledgments xv Introduction: Mead as American Icon 1 Chapter 1. Mead as Modern Woman 25 Chapter 2. Images of the Mature Mead 58 Chapter 3. Mead as Anthropologist: "Sex in the South Seas" 83 Chapter 4. Mead as Anthropologist: "To Study Cannibals" 113 Chapter 5. Mead as Anthropologist: "To Find Out How Girls Learn to Be Girls" 133 Chapter 6. Mead and the Image of the Anthropologist 151 Chapter 7. Mead as Scientist 165 Chapter 8. Mead as Public Intellectual and Celebrity 205 Chapter 9. The Posthumous Mead, or Mead, the Public Anthropologist 238 Abbreviations of Archival Sources 265 Notes 267 Bibliography 331 Index 361
Nancy C. Lutkehaus is professor of anthropology at the University of Southern California and a fellow at the Getty Research Institute. She is the author of "Zaria's Fire: Engendered Moments in Manam Ethnography". While a student, she worked for several years as an assistant to Margaret Mead at the American Museum of Natural History, and, like Mead, she has done ethnographic research in Papua New Guinea.
Lutkehaus provides a fair and fascinating account of her multifaceted subject, making this as intriguing and thought-provoking a biography as one could wish for. -- Guy Cook, Times Higher Education Lutkehaus effectively and perceptively examines Mead's impact (both subtle and overt) on anthropology and American popular culture from the 1928 publication of her first book, Coming of Age in Samoa, to the present day. With its fresh approach, this work is a valuable addition to the body of literature on Mead. Highly recommended for anthropology and popular culture collections in academic and large public libraries. -- Elizabeth Salt, Library Journal [Nancy C. Lutkehaus has] written an illuminating book--more a sociohistorical portrait than a birth-to-death biography--that examines how Margaret Mead became an American icon. -- Laurence A. Marschall, Natural History In 1972, college student Lutkehaus worked a year for Margaret Mead. Experiencing the variety of Mead's roles as a mature anthropologist herself, she decided to analyze that best-known U.S. anthropologist. Her book presents Mead as American icon, modern woman, anthropologist, woman scientist, celebrity, and posthumous public anthropologist. -- A.B. Kehoe, Choice For those interested in the history of science, the nature of celebrity and fame, and the roles of women in anthropology, Lutkehaus's volume is a welcome and important addition to our understanding of the place of professions and noteworthy professionals in American society and culture. -- Nancy J. Parezo, American Historical Review Lutkehaus's engagingly written study of the iconic status of Margaret Mead in America is indispensable for thinking about the relationship between public intellectual academics and broader cultural trends. -- Neil Mclaughlin, Contexts This book is perfectly focused, richly researched, filled with incidents and evidence and insightful interviews, and written as a story that certainly held this reader. It is a treasure, full of history and insights... I think Mead would have liked this solidly researched and convincingly interpreted book, and I think she deserved it. I think she would think that she chose well when she chose Lutkehaus as her assistant half a century ago. -- Dorothy K. Billings, Current Anthropology In this wonderfully illustrated book, Lutkehaus ... carries off the narrative and the analysis of Mead's 'iconicity' with learning, clarity, and panache. -- Howard Brick, Museum Anthropology Review This meticulously researched book makes a significant contribution to the history of twentieth century American liberal thought and public opinion... The book is a great read, entertaining as well as informative. It makes skilful and pointed use of photographs, advertisements, illustrations and cartoons to amplify its subject. -- Penelope Schoeffel Meleisea, Pacific Affairs For readers interested in scientists as public intellectuals, celebrities, popularizers, social activists, and academic superstars, Lutkehaus's book offers an important refinement of a discussion begun in Rae Goodell's The Visible Scientists. -- Virginia Yans, ISIS
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