“Kroeber and 'salvage anthropology' are a mixed legacy. The presumed inevitability of indigenous disappearance supported the myth of a settler state starting from scratch in an empty land. But while the collecting of traditional knowledge and language data was often based on false assumptions, it did preserve a precious archive of tradition and language that serves today as a resource for cultural renewal. With lucidity and careful scholarship, Andrew Garrett explores this ambiguous history, providing a much-needed alternative to one-size-fits-all visions of decolonization.”
James Clifford, author of Returns: Becoming Indigenous in the Twenty-First Century
“This compelling book offers a fair-minded yet passionate assessment of the controversy over one of early American anthropology's most prominent figures. Garrett recounts how the righteousness of Native American activism and the stale theater of white liberal virtue signaling led to Kroeber Hall's unnaming, no matter that its namesake had believed in the dignity of all peoples much ahead of his time. We learn a great deal along the way about language, culture, and Native California—and the fickleness of memory and judgment in an age of sometimes shallow atonement for this country's deep wrongs.”
Orin Starn, Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Duke University, author of Ishi's Brain: In Search of America's Last “Wild” Indian
“The glimmer of hope is that scholars such as Andrew Garrett exist, who can cut through the thought-terminating narratives of good vs evil and add much-needed noise. The author is not afraid to stare the discomfort of ambiguity in the face. The Unnaming of Kroeber Hall is a masterclass in rigorous, empathic scholarship.”
N.J. Enfield
Times Literary Supplement
“A richly researched new book.... [Garrett] is an inveterate educator, and Kroeber's story, whatever else it is, is a teaching opportunity—exactly the sort of thing that should not be erased.”
Alta Journal
“A nuanced, well-researched and detailed account of early-twentieth-century anthropology and linguistics.... about much more than just Alfred Kroeber, but about institutional ignorance and misconduct. For Garret then, working to right some of the historical wrongs have only just begun.”
Anthropology Book Forum
“Richly documented, complex....Garrett's is the best work I know that explores the contradictions and unintended outcomes of what was long called “salvage” anthropology and linguistics.”
European Journal of Sociology
