And Keep Your Powder Dry

An Anthropologist Looks at America

Margaret Mead

• Publisher: Berghahn Books
• Year: 2000
• Print ISBN:
  9781571812186
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781782384748
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Anthropology
• Index: Social Sciences

Margaret Mead wrote this comprehensive sketch of the culture of the United States - the first since de Tocqueville - in 1942 at the beginnning of the Second World War, when Americans were confronted by foreign powers from both Europe and Asia in a particularly challenging manner. Mead's work became an instant classic. It was required reading for anthropology students for nearly two decades, and was widely translated. It was revised and expanded in 1965 for a second generation of readers. Among the more controversial conclusions of her analysis are the denial of class as a motivating force in American culture, and her contention that culture is the primary determinant for individual character formation. Her process remains lucid, vivid, and arresting. As a classic study of a complex western society, it remains a monument to anthropological analysis.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgement
• Contents
• Introduction-2000: America According to Margaret Mead
• Preface-1965
• Preface from England-1943
• Introduction-1965
• Chapter I: Introduction-1942
• Chapter II: Clearing the Air
• Chapter III: We are the Third Generation
• Chapter IV: The Class Handicap
• Chapter V: The European in Our Midst
• Chapter VI: Parents, Children and Achievement
• Chapter VII: Brothers and Sisters and Success
• Chapter VIII: Are Today's Youth Different?
• Chapter IX: The Chip on the Shoulder
• Chapter X: Fighting the War American Style
• Chapter XI: Are Democracy and Social Science Compatible Each with Each?
• Chapter XII: If We Are to Go On
• Chapter XIII: Building the World New
• Chapter XIV: Those Things We Can Do
• Chapter XV: The Years Between: 1943-1965
• Biographical Note-1942
• Biography-1942 Revised
• Biographical Note-1965
• Biography-1965