Elsie Clews Parsons: Inventing Modern Life (Volume 1997)

Women in Culture and Society

by Desley Deacon, Catharine R. Stimpson

Elsie Clews Parsons was a pioneering feminist, an eminent anthropologist, and an ardent social critic. In Elsie Clews Parsons , Desley Deacon reconstructs Parsons's efforts to overcome gender biases in both academia and society.

"Wonderfully illuminating. . . . Parsons's work resonates strikingly to current trends in anthropology."—George W. Stocking, Jr., Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

"This is the biography of a woman so interesting and effective—a cross between Margaret Mead and Georgia O'Keeffe. . . . A nuanced portrait of this vivid woman."—Tanya Luhrmann, New York Times Book Review

"A marvelous new book about the life of Elsie Clews Parsons. . . . It's as though she is sitting on the next rock, a contemporary struggling with the same issues that confront women how to combine work, love and child-rearing into one life."—Abigail Trafford, Washington Post

"Parsons's splendid life and work continue to illuminate current puzzles about acculturation and diversity."— New Yorker

Genres: Anthropology, Biography

538 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Karen Hyatt]

Another brilliant woman who loved the Southwest and made a difference through so many fields of knowledge.