An incomparable retrospective of writings by one of the world's great
anthropologists
Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) was perhaps the most influential
anthropologist of our time, but his influence extended far beyond his
field to encompass all facets of contemporary life. Nowhere were his
gifts for directness, humor, and steady revelation more evident than in
the pages of the New York Review of Books, where for nearly four
decades he shared his acute vision of the world in all its peculiarity.
This book brings together the finest of Geertz's review essays from the
New York Review along with a representative selection of later pieces
written at the height of his powers, some that first appeared in
periodicals such as Dissent, others never before published.
This collection exemplifies Geertz's extraordinary range of concerns,
beginning with his first essay for the Review in 1967, in which he
reviews, with muffled hilarity, the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski.
This book includes Geertz's unflinching meditations on Western
academia's encounters with the non-Western world, and on the shifting
and clashing places of societies in the world generally. Geertz writes
eloquently and arrestingly about such major figures as Gandhi, Foucault,
and Genet, and on topics as varied as Islam, globalization, feminism,
and the failings of nationalism.
Life among the Anthros and Other Essays demonstrates Geertz's uncommon
wisdom and consistently keen and hopeful humor, confirming his status as
one of our most important and enduring public intellectuals.
