Frederick Starr - by Donald McVicker (Hardcover)

About the Book

This is the first biography 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 in anthropology, illuminates the consequences of the professionalization of anthropology, and ...

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"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." --Alice Beck Kehoe, professor of anthropology emeritus, Marquette University

"After years of research in previously untouched archives McVicker has produced the first full-length biography of the maverick, largely forgotten University of Chicago anthropologist Frederick Starr. Undisciplined in so many respects--intellectually, institutionally, socially--Starr became the "anti-Boas" of the formative years of American anthropology: staunch evolutionist, inveterate popularizer, peripatetic world traveler, outrageous commentator. Over a thirty-year career Starr failed to build either department or museum at Chicago, but in his own fashion he brought awareness and appreciation of cultural differences to mass audiences. McVicker has done signal service in reminding us of the fascinating cast of characters, with all their warts, blemishes, dreams, and ambitions, who have crossed paths in making American social science." --Curtis M. Hinsley, Northern Arizona University

About the Author

Donald McVicker is professor emeritus of anthropology at North Central College in Naperville, IL, and a research associate at The Field Museum in Chicago.