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The earliest origins of that one Margaret Mead quote

Rex
via goalcast

Margaret Mead’s quote about how a small group of citizens can change the world can be found all over the Internet. But did she actually say it? And where? The quote is notoriously hard to track down. I’ve tried googling around through And Keep Your Powder Dry and other likely locations but haven’t had much luck locating the origin of this quote. Then something I read — alas, I forget what — pointed me to a book with the quote in it: Earth At Omega: Passage to Planetization by Donald Keys. The book appeared in 1982, but obviously with a title like the thought is pre-Reagan.

At any rate the quote appears on page 79, at the opening of chapter six. I wonder whether it was something she said at a conference, or often said in conversation? Here’s a screenshot of the quote. I wonder if we can push it back even later in time and find an earlier occurrence?

Saturday Links

Rex

Several things happened this week:

General Jerry Singirok’s memoir of the Sandline Affair is an inexpensive ebook

Rex

I normally don’t shill for Amazon — in fact I go out of my way to get my ebooks elsewhere. However in this case I think a plug is warranted, as they are selling copies of Singirok’s A Matter of Conscience: Operation Rausim Kwik for US$3.99. The book is (according the Amazon) almost 700 pages long. I haven’t had a chance to crack it yet but I suspect this is one any student of PNG history will want to have available, especially for that low price. Paper copies will be scarce, I reckon. Other ebook vendors don’t seem to have it available. So if you are interested in PNG history and have access to US amazon, I’d recommend you purchase a copy.

JSTOR Books Directory

Rex

It’s very difficult to navigate the selection of publishers on JSTOR Books, so here are some links to common publishers which will save me (and perhaps you?) some time:

Sahlins memorial piece in the JSO

Rex

I have a piece in memory of Marshall Sahlins in the latest issue of the Journal de la Société des Océanistes . This is a more personal piece about Sahlins. Getting it out on a tight deadline resulted in a few typos which are mostly corrected now (although I think the French spelling of ‘Barney’ is used in the article).

It’s hard to talk about the intimate relationship you had with your dissertation advisor. Advisors have a huge impression on you. An impression much larger, I imagine, than you have on them. And of course you never know them as well as their family and close friends, even if you have personal as well as collegial relationship. I hope I struck the right balance, especially since I try to be honest about my (minor) disagreements with Sahlins rather than merely produce a piece full of hero worship.

New book chapter: Restraint Without Control

Rex

Very proud to have a new chapter out in the new edited volume The Absent Presence of the State in Large-Scale Resource Extraction Projects edited by Nick Bainton and Emilka Skrzypek. This is another great open access book from ANU Press. Nick and Emilka were excellent editors — real role models as I push to improve my own editing. I worked hard for them and took changes in this article, which is a main piece of research for me. It is also outside my usual boundaries since it deal with history, law and order issues, and Enga province as a whole so… I hope others like it!

‘Restraint without Control’: Law and Order in Porgera and Enga Province, 1950–2015

Book review: Lohmann’s “Haunted Pacific”

Rex

It’s the end of the summer so I have a variety of updates to make to keep up with all the things I’ve been publishing. First up is a book review of Roger Lohmann’s edited volume Haunted Pacific: Anthropologists Investigate Spectral Apparitions across Oceania. I was not super-impressed by Roger’s theoretical framing of the project (although I like and respect him personally) but the chapters he brought together were very good. I especially liked Christiane Falck’s. Go take a look at my review and/or the book!