"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world."--Margaret Mead This quotation--found on posters and bumper stickers, and adopted as the motto for hundreds of organizations worldwide--speaks to the global influence and legacy of the American anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-78). In this insightful and revealing book, Nancy Lutkehaus explains how and why Mead became the best-known anthropologist and female public intellectual in twentieth-century America. Using photographs, films, television appearances, and materials from newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals, Lutkehaus explores the ways in which Mead became an American cultural heroine. Identifying four key images associated with her--the New Woman, the Anthropologist/Adventurer, the Scientist, and the Public Intellectual--Lutkehaus examines the various meanings that different segments of American society assigned to Mead throughout her lengthy career as a public figure. The author shows that Mead came to represent a new set of values and ideas--about women, non-Western peoples, culture, and America's role in the twentieth century--that have significantly transformed society and become generally accepted today. Lutkehaus also considers why there has been no other anthropologist since Mead to become as famous. Margaret Mead is an engaging look at how one woman's life and accomplishments resonated with the issues that shaped American society and changed her into a celebrity and cultural icon.

In 1928 Margaret Mead published Coming of Age in Samoa, a fascinating study of the lives of adolescent girls that transformed Mead herself into an academic celebrity. In 1983 anthropologist Derek Freeman published a scathing critique of Mead’s Samoan research, badly damaging her reputation. Resonating beyond academic circles, his case against Mead tapped into important public concerns of the 1980s, including sexual permissiveness, cultural relativism, and the nature/nurture debate. In venues from the New York Times to the TV show Donahue, Freeman argued that Mead had been “hoaxed” by Samoans whose innocent lies she took at face value. In The Trashing of Margaret Mead, Paul Shankman explores the many dimensions of the Mead-Freeman controversy as it developed publicly and as it played out privately, including the personal relationships, professional rivalries, and larger-than-life personalities that drove it. Providing a critical perspective on Freeman’s arguments, Shankman reviews key questions about Samoan sexuality, the alleged hoaxing of Mead, and the meaning of the controversy. Why were Freeman’s arguments so readily accepted by pundits outside the field of anthropology? What did Samoans themselves think? Can Mead’s reputation be salvaged from the quicksand of controversy? Written in an engaging, clear style and based on a careful review of the evidence, The Trashing of Margaret Mead illuminates questions of enduring significance to the academy and beyond. 2010 Distinguished Lecturer in Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History “The Trashing of Margaret Mead reminds readers of the pitfalls of academia. It urges scholars to avoid personal attacks and to engage in healthy debate. The book redeems Mead while also redeeming the field of anthropology. By showing the uniqueness of the Mead-Freeman case, Shankman places his continued confidence in academia, scholars, and the field of anthropology.”—H-Net Reviews

No one so famous or controversial led so many secret lives. Loathed by some, and well respected by others, Roy Cohn was known as the toughest and most brilliant lawyer in America. From his role in the Rosenberg trial and as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy through his extraordinary friendship with J. Edgar Hoover and his vendetta against Robert Kennedy, Cohn's reputation grew larger than life. Presidents, celebrities, gangsters, judges, and endless politicians crossed Cohn’s path, either as friend or foe, including J. Edgar Hoover, Senator Joseph McCarthy, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Ronald Reagan, Robert Kennedy, Barbara Walters, Fat Tony Salerno, Louis Nizer, Si Newhouse, Rupert Murdoch, George Steinbrenner, Donald Trump, and many more. Cohn was the target of numerous indictments and haunted by professional misconduct charges which led to his disbarment shortly before his death. His private life, even more outrageous than his life known to the public, constantly had his name in gossip columns; there were his lovers, his denial of his homosexuality and AIDS diagnosis, and finally his death from AIDS-related cancer in 1986. Nicolas von Hoffman has created a remarkable and provocative biography of a complex life that was driven by power. Interviewing family members, colleagues, clients, friends, and lovers, he gives an extraordinary portrait of the man, his ideological passion, and the patterns of power and money that made him, in the end, one of the most influential men in our society. From hidden bank accounts, numerous incidents of political fixing, and surprising connections, Citizen Cohn reveals the real Roy Cohn.

The central and later decades of the twentieth century have not only been marked by the popularity of fantasy in general but of fantastic graphics in particular. As a literature relatively new to academic consideration, however, fantasy lacks a universally accepted definition, and no previous author has adequately studied the genral differences between the literalness of realistic illustration and the paradoxes of fantastic illumination. In "Illuminated Fantasy," James Whitlark presents a detailed analysis of the significance of picture/text discrepancy - its history, its various forms, and its psychological complexities.