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Readers of this review familiar with the development of anthropology during the past fifty years are similarly familiar with the extent and range of Boas's contributions to its growth and achievements as a science. Over several decades his work has consistently maintained a foremost place in the progress of his chosen field. Standpoints of conception and interpretation long defended by him—and for long the subject of extended controversy—have since been substantiated by further evidence adduced in the increased anthropological studies of late years.
It is eminently fitting that the representative work of one who has done so much toward establishing the bases of American anthropology should be reprinted in a single volume, as has here been done in regard to the major contributions of Boas dated from 1887 onward. The papers have been collected in a large octavo volume of over 640 pages; comprising more than 60 separate studies. The general title indicates the subject division under which the material is arranged—not according to the chronology of original publication but with regard to a comprehensive and developmental presentation of each section as a whole. This arrangement has afforded the alternation of general discussions with the relative accounts of special investigation, thus giving the reader a clear view of individual problems in terms both of basic data and the formative steps toward broader conclusions. The work recorded here in the manner so chosen, consisting in the main of progressive investigation extending over many years, is through design and scope better equipped than lesser presentations to clarify the bearing of historical anthropology to problems of contemporary life. Such clarification has been a primary aim in the preparation of this volume: to show the special significance the connection between investigation and formulation in anthropology maintains for spheres of social orientation not generally conceived as falling within the scope of forma