Family and background, Ottumwa, Iowa; anthropology at Northwestern, Melville Herskovits; Ph.D. at UC Berkeley, Alfred Kroeber, Robert Lowie; first travel to Mexico; marriage to Mary LeCron, 1938, and trip to Austria; research with Sierra Popoluca, 1940-1941; teaching at Syracuse and UCLA; colleagues and work at Smithsonian Institution, Washington and Mexico: Institute of Inter-American Affairs, Institute of Social Anthropology, 1943-1953, start of long-term field research in Tzintzuntzan, sabbatical in Spain; UC Berkeley Department of Anthropology since 1953: planning Kroeber Hall, course work, administration, expanding faculty, Ph.D. curricula, funding students; American Anthropological Association presidency; sixties, seventies issues of free speech, ethics, Vietnam war; evolution of medical anthropology; community development advisory role for World Health Organizaion, Agency for International Development; discusses field work, writing, students, personal change, beliefs, family, friendships, and some current issues in anthropology.

includes biographical material, recollections of research in Spain and Tzintzuntzan, Mexico, and correspondence relating to Ishi-the last Yahi-remains.