Alfred Radcliffe-Brown (1881-1955) is widely renowned as a founder of modern social anthropology. This biography challenges popular stereotypes of him as a misplaced positivist and colonial conservative. It shows Radcliffe-Brown to be a thoroughly cosmopolitan scholar, a committed fieldworker and a sharp critic of colonialism. Radcliffe-Brown engaged strategically with colonial authorities to further the interests of his discipline and invoked scientific credentials to critique central aspects of colonial rule. His struggle for intellectual autonomy and advocacy of a comparative sociological approach speaks to many contemporary concerns.

Isak Niehaus teaches social anthropology at Brunel University London. He has previously published Witchcraft, Power and Politics (Pluto Press, 2001), Witchcraft and a Life in the New South Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and AIDS in the Shadow of Biomedicine (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018).