#kroeber

Two “letters of recommendation” for Paul Radin, written by Alfred Kroeber and Franz Boas. Radin was trained by Boas, and worked briefly with Kroeber at Berkeley. 

Apparently, in 1917 he was looking for a new gig in a tight job market:

Kroeber writes: “[Pliny Earle] Goddard writes me that he recently talked with you about [Paul] Radin. My position is this: Radin awakens in me something of the personal repugnance which he seems to arouse in so strong a degree in many others. Somehow I cannot bring myself to have faith in him except in purely intellectual matters or impersonal relationships…. I do object to carrying Radin for a half-starved year or two in a distressing condition, and distressing every one about him, only to have him at the end of this period, drop off from exhaustion. We have nothing permanent for him. If we had a place, I could not recommend him to President Wheeler for it.” (Letter from Alfred Kroeber to Franz Boas, 11 Jan 1917; APS)

Foundations of American Ethnography of the Northwest Coast: Comprehensive Exam Practice

Area 2: Ethnographic Accounts of Pacific Northwest Native peoples

  This subject entails the discourse and dialogue between Native peoples and societies and ethnographers on the Pacific Northwest Coast. What is intrinsically part of the discussion is an analysis of the history and progress of ethnography, and of the interactions between ethnographers and Native peoples. Thus the subject may be…

Figure 1. Vanishing Kroeber.