He characterizes Boas as a complex and conflicted man who held ambiguous ideas about racial equality.
~American Historical Review
Contributes significantly to a fuller understanding of Boas's impact on racial thinking, and it offers new insights into the changing racial views of social scientists in the formative period from 1896 to 1943.
~American Historical Review
This is the first book to detail how Boas also worked closely with many of the same African-American intellectuals to shape major trends in American anthropology.
~American Journal of Sociology
Williams enlightens the reader as to the gulf that still remains between the myths that are utilized to support claims of African American inferiority and the true complexity of this topic as revealed by scholars like Franz Boas.
~Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences
Williams has done a superb job of discussing the impact of Franz Boas' impact on the racial thinking of his white anthropological contemporaries.... a most valuable contribution to the past and continuing debate of the importance of race in American society.
~Arkansas Historical Quarterly
Offers a thoughtful historical reflection on how and why these issues continue to affect our personal and national perceptions and out often uncomfortable attempts to discuss race in American life.
~Historian
A timely and thoughtful re-examination of a formative period in the history of American social science and race relations.
~Southern Historian
A continuation of the author's pioneering work on the emergence of the modern cultural interpretation of race in America.
~The Journal of Southern History