Frederick Starr

Popularizer of Anthropology, Public Intellectual, and Genuine Eccentric

By: Donald McVicker

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Hardcover | 8 November 2012

At a Glance

Hardcover
450 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.39 x 15.98 x 3.84

Hardcover

RRP $280.00

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This definitive, detail-packed biography is the first of Frederick Starr (1856-1933), a founding father of American anthropology at the University of Chicago. It presents a major reevaluation of Starr's place as the missionizer of anthropology, illuminates the consequences of the professionalization of anthropology, and yields a greater understanding of the United States as it moved into a position of global power. Donald McVicker considers Frederick Starr's colorful life in the context of the times. In many respects Starr's early career paralleled that of Franz Boas, "the architect of American anthropology." Nonetheless, as Boas led professional anthropology into the twentieth century in the United States, Starr, the popularizer, increasingly fell behind. Today, if Starr is remembered at all, he is usually described in terms of his intellectual, professional, and ethical failings. Yet his collections, publications, and photographic and paper archives provide a rich set of resources for archaeologists, ethnologists, folklorists, and historians. McVicker argues that Starr's mission to bring anthropology to the public and enlighten them was as valid a goal during his career as was Boas's goal to professionalize the field.

Industry Reviews

Before Margaret Mead, there was Frederick Starr. Who? Starr, often in the newspapers, adulated University of Chicago professor, popular lecturer to packed theaters, collector of thousands of Indian, Mexican, Asian and African museum objects, fervently believed everyone should learn about anthropology. Why do even anthropologists today hardly recognize the name of Frederick Starr? Chicago anthropologist Donald McVicker perceives that Starr's anthropology exploring "primitive" and "barbarian" peoples, a kind of human geography, conflicted with the sophisticated scientific research carried on by German-trained Franz Boas and his graduate students, including Mead. This book is a fascinating travelogue through much of the world a century ago, and a thought-provoking reflection on contrasting anthropologies of the time.

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