Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century

Charles King, PhD, is a professor of International Affairs and Government at Georgetown University. He earned his doctorate in political science and his master’s degree in Russian & Eastern European studies from Oxford University. He has served as the chair of the Department of Government and School of Foreign Service at Georgetown. King’s research interests include global cities, history, international politics, and social sciences, with a particular focus on Eastern Europe. He is the author of 10 books, including Odessa, which won the National Jewish Book Award. King is also the author of a multitude of articles that have been featured in academic journals, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Literary Times Supplement, The Washington Post, and The New Republic. He travels globally to lecture and has appeared on many television networks, including CNN and the BBC to educate on history and politics. He credits his wife, the anthropologist Margaret Paxson, with inspiring him to write about the Boas circle and its contributions to the shaping of the discipline of anthropology.

Franz Boas, PhD, was born in 1858 in the town of Minden, which was then part of Westphalia in the Kingdom of Prussia and is now part of Germany.