MODERN CAPITALIST CULTURE

Modern Capitalist Culture is the lost masterwork of Leslie A. White, one of the most important anthropologists of the twentieth century, that represents twenty-five years of his scholarship on the anthropology of modern capitalism. Drawing out his now classic formulations of social organization, cultural evolution, and the relationship between technology, ecology, and culture, this major theoretical work traces a vast expanse of history from the earliest forms of capitalism to the detailed inner workings of contemporary democratic institutions. This abridged edition of Modern Capitalist Culture delivers all of White’s major arguments in a clear and concise manner. A substantial foreword by Benjamin Urish, Robert Carneiro, and Burton J. Brown both situates this posthumous work within the history of anthropological theory and shows its importance to contemporary debates.