Participant Observers - (Berkeley British Studies) by Freddy Foks (Paperback)

About the Book

"By the 1950s, social anthropologists were at the forefront of debates about culture, society, and the limits to economic development in Britain and the British Empire. This book explains how anthropology rose to such prominence and how its influence dispersed across the humanities and social sciences. Part institutional history of social anthropology's imperial formation, part cultural history of the discipline's impact, this is the first account of social anthropology's pivotal role in Britain's midcentury intellectual culture"--

Book Synopsis

Social anthropology was at the forefront of debates about culture, society, and economic development in the British Empire. This book explores the discipline's rise in the interwar period, crisis amid decolonization, and ironic reemergence in the postwar metropole. Across the humanities and social sciences, activists and scholars used anthropological concepts forged in empire to rethink British society at midcentury. Participant Observers shows how colonial anthropology helped define the social imagination of postimperial Britain. Part institutional history of the discipline's formation, part cultural history of its impact, this is the first account of social anthropology's pivotal role in Britain's intellectual culture.

From the Back Cover

"Freddy Foks strips away the mythic glow that clings to figures like Malinowski and Evans-Pritchard even today, not by villainizing them or crudely debunking their work but by contextualizing and historicizing them more effectively than has ever been done before. While restoring the essential weirdness of British social anthropology, he also manages to show how the field achieved immense and enduring influence across disciplinary and geographic boundaries."--Erik Linstrum, author of Ruling Minds: Psychology in the British Empire

"Participant Observers is an authoritative account of the development of British anthropology during the first half of the 20th century, emphasizing the formative role it played in shaping wider currents of thought and underscoring its significance for the development of social science."--Mike Savage, author of The Return of Inequality: Social Change and the Weight of the Past

"This book recounts how 'social' anthropology acquired its spots and how it was disappeared just when its impact on the envisioning of society was at its height in postwar Britain. Many anthropologists historicize their own discipline, but if there were ever a case for a historian's history, this lateral--and strikingly original--account is it."--Marilyn Strathern, author of Relations: An Anthropological Account

Review Quotes

"Recommended."-- "CHOICE"

"This is a sophisticated and polished work, one that displays Foks' owndeeply impressive expertise on the inner workings of texts, scholars, and institutions."
-- "Journal of British Studies"

"Foks has produced an important work that refocuses our understanding of social anthropology during this fundamentally important period in world history."
-- "H-Net Reviews"

"Fascinating and very readable."-- "Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute"

About the Author

Freddy Foks is Simon Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. He is a historian of modern Britain and its empire.