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William J. Peace. Leslie A. White: Evolution and Revolution in Anthropology. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004. 292 pp. Cloth, $29.95.
Leslie White (1900-75) was something of an intellectual hero in my early academic career. I still employ his evolutionary approach to the analysis of societies and cultures in my own work. One ofthe thrills of my undergraduate days was receiving a personal letter from him in 1966 in reply to questions I had written him while preparing a term paper about his theoretical antecedents. So having been given this book to review was a genuine opportunity for me to reconnect with my mentor from afar. Alas, I find in its pages more than enough reasons to be disappointed both with my hero and the author of this book.
Peace reveals that White led a double life for most of his career, publicly denying active participation and holding membership in communist and socialist organizations while doing just the opposite. His infamous ongoing debates with the likes of Franz Boas and his followers, with Robert Lowie, Julian Steward, and Alfred L. Kroeber, in retrospect appear to have little intellectual substance and were largely of White's own making, harping on trivial differences rather than seeing the broader similarities in their interests and efforts. In Peace's presentation White comes across as a disagreeable man simply trying to "pick a fight" with anyone who was in his path rather than as an intellectual giant trying to sharpen the focus of the discipline. That clearly is not Peace's intent, and his respect for White is obvious. It is just that he has chosen to write about an...