Customer Reviews

Selected Writings in Language, Culture, and Personality

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After reading the currently available collection of Whorf's work, I became interested in the 'linguistic relativist' position and decided to read this book of Sapir's. However, there is little comparison to be made between the two scholars; Sapir comes off as far deeper and more professional than Whorf, and writes profoundly about a broad range of issues. This book includes writings on anthropology, linguistics, sociology, literary criticism (which I found a little dodgy, to tell the truth), music, etc, etc--and he writes fluently and intriguingly about all of them, with the exception perhaps of poetry, though it may just be a difference of taste that leads me to that conclusion. Anyway some of his most famous essays are included, mostly on linguistics, though the long essay on establishing times of migration etc. of American Indian tribes was extremely interesting and worth any effort put into reading it (it does take some). Anyway, it's worth your time--read it.

While studying the work of Benjamin Lee Whorf, I took a side
trip and read this volume from cover to cover. I came away with
enormous respect for Edward Sapir as a thinker and as someone who
knew both the pitfalls and privileges of modernity. The articles in
the collection are of interest to students of culture, but will reward reading by any thoughtful person.

Whorf and Sapir had an interesting relationship.

Whorf studied linguistics and anthropology with Sapir at Yale U, with
Whorf attending night sessions because of his work at the Hartford Insurance Company. Sapir recognized a bright student when he saw one and took Whorf under his wing.

This collection provides a fascinating profile of a sophisticated
modern who understood the legitimate purposes of both science and art.

My book entitled BENJAMIN LEE WHORF: LOST GENERATION THEORIES OF MIND, LANGUAGE, AND RELIGION and the soon-to-be-released CD-ROM,
THE LEGACY OF BENJAMIN LEE WHORF (2008) explore the important differences between these men--whose ideas are often yoked together.
(For more on the CD-ROM, see [...] and click on "media."

Peter Rollins
RollinsPC@aol.com