Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI’s Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: anthropologist activists, activist anthropologists, loyalty hearings, United States, New York, Richard Morgan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A bold piece of scholarship that breaks the silence on many issues that have changed only a bit since the Cold War and might still come to the foreground in such a way as to make the McCarthy era look like a play." Laura Nader, University of California, Berkeley "An enthralling expedition into the heart of academic darkness. David H. Price brilliantly confirms that there are no depths to which policemen and professors will not sink."--Alexander Cockburn, coeditor of CounterPunch and columnist for The Nation "Threatening Anthropology is a bold piece of scholarship, one that breaks the silence on many issues in the American trajectory that have changed only a bit since the Cold War and--given recent indications--might still come to the foreground in such a way as to make the McCarthy era look like play."--Laura Nader, University of California, Berkeley "David H. Price's painstaking account of political repression in anthropology after the Second World War is a unique contribution to the history of the field. More than that, it may foreshadow what some today may entertain. Let us hope not, but let us not be naive."--Dell Hymes, editor of Reinventing Anthropology "a story that is historically needed and industriously researched..." The Seattle Times, Bruce Ramsey "...is an opinionated, audacious, and welcome piece of scholarship." Barbara McMichael of The Olympian "David Price has produced an extremely important book. 'Threatening Anthropology' illuminates both the history of Anthropology and the political history of the USA from the late 1930's to the present."--CAMBRIDGE ANTHROPOLOGY, 25:1, 2005

Product Description

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 from the fbi and congressional committees but rather social activism, particularly for racial justice. Demonstrating that the fbi’s focus on anthropologists lessened as activist work and Marxist analysis in the field tapered off, Price argues that the impact of McCarthyism on anthropology extended far beyond the lives of those who lost their jobs. Its messages of fear and censorship had a pervasive chilling effect on anthropological investigation. As critiques that might attract government attention were abandoned, scholarship was curtailed.

Price draws on extensive archival research including correspondence, oral histories, published sources, court hearings, and more than 30,000 pages of fbi and government memorandums released to him under the Freedom of Information Act. He describes government monitoring of activism and leftist thought on college campuses, the surveillance of specific anthropologists, and the disturbing failure of the academic community—including the American Anthropological Association—to challenge the witch hunts. Today the "war on terror" is invoked to license the government’s renewed monitoring of academic work, and it is increasingly difficult for researchers to access government documents, as Price reveals in the appendix describing his wrangling with Freedom of Information Act requests. A disquieting chronicle of censorship and its consequences in the past, Threatening Anthropology is an impassioned cautionary tale for the present.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Duke University Press; Paper edition edition (March 24, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0822333384
• ISBN-13: 978-0822333388
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #729,183 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Important New Interpretation of McCarthyism, June 24, 2004

By	S. L. Johnson (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

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.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling argument for more activist science, May 4, 2004

By A Customer

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."

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cold War History, June 21, 2004

By A Customer

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.