Elsie Clews Parsons: Inventing Modern Life

Elsie Clews Parsons was a pioneering feminist, an eminent anthropologist, and an ardent social critic. In *Elsie Clews Parsons*, Desley Deacon reconstructs Parsons's efforts to overcome gender biases in both academia and society. "Wonderfully illuminating. . . . Parsons's work resonates strikingly to current trends in anthropology."-George W. Stocking, Jr., *Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute* "This is the biography of a woman so interesting and effective-a cross between Margaret Mead and Georgia O'Keeffe. . . . A nuanced portrait of this vivid woman."-Tanya Luhrmann, *New York Times Book Review* "A marvelous new book about the life of Elsie Clews Parsons. . . . It's as though she is sitting on the next rock, a contemporary struggling with the same issues that confront women today: how to combine work, love and child-rearing into one life."-Abigail Trafford, *Washington Post* "Parsons's splendid life and work continue to illuminate current puzzles about acculturation and diversity."-*New Yorker*