Margaret Mead: The Making of an American Icon

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world."–Margaret Mead


This quotation–found on posters and bumper stickers, and adopted as the motto for hundreds of organizations worldwide–speaks to the global influence and legacy of the American anthropologist Margaret Mead (1901-78). In this insightful and revealing book, Nancy Lutkehaus explains how and why Mead became the best-known anthropologist and female public intellectual in twentieth-century America.


Using photographs, films, television appearances, and materials from newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals, Lutkehaus explores the ways in which Mead became an American cultural heroine. Identifying four key images associated with her–the New Woman, the Anthropologist/Adventurer, the Scientist, and the Public Intellectual–Lutkehaus examines the various meanings that different segments of American society assigned to Mead throughout her lengthy career as a public figure. The author shows that Mead came to represent a new set of values and ideas–about women, non-Western peoples, culture, and America's role in the twentieth century–that have significantly transformed society and become generally accepted today. Lutkehaus also considers why there has been no other anthropologist since Mead to become as famous.



is an engaging look at how one woman's life and accomplishments resonated with the issues that shaped American society and changed her into a celebrity and cultural icon.
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