Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the Fbi's Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists

by David H. Price

Book Overview

A vital reminder of the importance of academic freedom, Threatening Anthropology offers a meticulously detailed account of how U.S. Cold War surveillance damaged the field of anthropology. David H. Price reveals how dozens of activist anthropologists were publicly and privately persecuted during the Red Scares of the 1940s and 1950s. He shows that it was not Communist Party membership or Marxist beliefs that attracted the most intense scrutiny...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822333384
• ISBN13: 9780822333388
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A remarkable story told with unusual levels of documentation

Price hits his readers pretty hard in this brutal tale of shame. This will enrage some readers, but he's justified. He fights like Hotspur and marks out a clear lineage of blame & dishonor. Too bad so few who lived through the years described here are alive to read this account.

An Important New Interpretation of McCarthyism

Threatening Anthropology tells how the FBI and senate committees spied on and harassed hundreds of anthropologists working for racial equality. Price gathered a lot of new documents and information and his analysis left me thinking in new ways about McCarthyism and how the FBI was used to enforce racist policies in the 1940s and 1950s. Price uses thousands of documents to show that the FBI was used to persecute pioneering scientists threatening widespread bigotry. Threatening Anthropology is a consuming, thought provoking book. Because there is a lot of dense information I thought I would slowly work my way through this over three or four weeks, but the writing and subject matter pulled me right in and I read it in a few days like I would a well written novel. Price really brings the reader into the story by richly describing the historical setting and then delving into dozens of individual stories telling how several dozen anthropologists like Melville Jacobs, Richard Morgan, Gene Weltfish, Ashley Montague and Margaret Mead were followed and harassed by the FBI because their fights for equality was seen as some sort of foreign communist plot. Price uses extensive FBI documents and correspondence to establish this story and brings an anthropological perspective that made me rethink what McCarthyism was. I used to wonder if the McCarthy like witch trials could happen again, and Price's detailed analysis and current political developments leave no doubts in my mind that we could do this again very quickly. This book has a lot to say to us all today and deserves to be read by anyone concerned about the abuses of the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security in the war on terrorism, and the past examined here looks a lot like the present. As Price says in the final pages of his book, "Today, much as in the past, free thought, civil liberties and academic freedom are curtailed under conditions of fear as America appears to be preparing for another lengthy ill-defined war." But Price doesn't leave us there, he gives us hope by analyzing past defenses against McCarthyism for us to use in the present.

Cold War History

Threatening Anthropology is an important book--one that I hope will signal a signicant change in the way the history of anthropology is written. Prior to Price, historians such as George Stocking have taken an apolitical view of anthropology's history. This is unfortunate in large part because many founding members of the discipline were politically active and engaged. The anthropologists paid a heavy price for this political activism--a point that Price drives home effectively. Encyclopedic in approach, Price does a great job outlining how politically active anthropologists were persecuted and lost their jobs--while the American Anthropology Associaltion looked on and did nothing. Based on extensive research via the FOIA, Price is to be commended for his efforts. While Price has focused on the larger issue of the Cold War, for those who want a case study see William Peace's biography of Leslie A. White. Hopefull the work of Peace and Price will inspire other anthropologists to take a closer look at the history of anthropology. Taken together, Price's and Peace's work will signal a new era in writing about anthropology's past.

destined to be an anthropological classic

Threatening Anthropology is a beautifully written, meticulously researched account of how J. Edgar Hoover, Senator Joseph McCarthy and others attacked anthropologists educating the public on scientific findings supporting racial equality. I passed this book on to non-anthropologist friends who found it to be a real page turner and were moved by the impassioned story Price artfully tells. This is a rare book that is carefully written for a board public readership, yet is so thoroughly researched and footnoted that historians and other scholars will find this to be an important contribution. This book will send shockwaves through the anthropological community. It should lead anthropology's historians to rethink their silence on the events documented here. How can it be that we learn so late that so many anthropologists from Franz Boas until now have been tormented by FBI spies? Have others known of these events and remained so silent for so long?While I studied anthropology during the decades discussed in this book I had no idea that my colleagues suffered the attacks detailed here, but I felt the pressures to avoid controversial advocacy that are documented here. Price may go too far in his criticism of postmodernism's contributions to anthropology's current crisis, but I find the historical positioning of his critique provocative. Threatening Anthropology should be read by all Americans concerned about the growing powers of the FBI and CIA.

A compelling argument for more activist science

Lots of good documentation allows Price to establish just how far the FBI went to torment scientists challenging racist and sexist popular views. It is as if J Edgar Hoover spied on Margaret Mead, Oscar Lewis, Ashley Montague and every other living anthropologist just because they believed that all people are equal. All the FBI files used in this book left a real chill with me, but it also left me more committed to speaking out and being more of an activist. A good book for any general reader questioning the Patriot Act and who wants to know why the FBI had its powers limited before Congress passed the "Patriot Act."