Pathways of Power Building an Anthropology of the Modern World [Paperback]

This collection of twenty-eight essays by renowned anthropologist Eric R. Wolf is a legacy of some of his most original work, with an insightful foreword by Aram Yengoyan. Of the essays, six have never been published and two have not appeared in English until now. Shortly before his death, Wolf prepared introductions to each section and individual pieces, as well as an intellectual autobiography that introduces the collection as a whole. Sydel Silverman, who completed the editing of the book, says in her preface, He wanted this selection of his writings over the past half-century to serve as part of the history of how anthropology brought the study of complex societies and world systems into its purview.

Eric R. Wolf(1923-1999) had an illustrious and influential career as Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at H. Lehman College and the Graduate School of the City University of New York. His books previously published by California includeEurope and the People Without History(reprint with new preface, 1997),Envisioning Power(1999), andThe Hidden Frontier(with John W. Cole; reprint with new introduction, 1999).Sydel Silvermanis Professor Emerita of Anthropology at the City University of New York. She was president of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research from 1987 to 1999.

Eric Wolf has literally set the terms for anthropological thinking about peasantries, culture and power, complex societies, and interactions between noncapitalist societies and capitalism. Every item in this excellent collection has stimulated and influenced both my own thought and that of many others in our field, as well as beyond it. Katherine Verdery, University of Michigan

This powerful body of work begins ('Anthropology') and ends ('Concepts') in a rather speculative vein, taking us into the ideas of others and then back to Wolf. In these two sections we get a picture of the development of lã-