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Capturing Kahanamoku : how a surfing legend and a scientific obsession redefined race and culture /

In 1920, Henry Fairfield Osborn, director of New York's American Museum of Natural History, traveled to Hawaii on an anthropological research trip. While there, he took a surfing lesson. His teacher was Duke Kahanamoku, a famous surf-rider and budding movie star. For Osborn, a fervent eugenicis...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rossi, Michael (Historian of science) (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: New York : HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2025].
Edition:First edition.
Subjects:
Osborn, Henry Fairfield, > 1857-1935.
Kahanamoku, Duke, > 1890-1968.
American Museum of Natural History > History.
Hawaiians > Anthropometry.
Physical anthropology > United States > History.
Racism in anthropology > United States > History.
Eugenics > United States > History.
Hawaii > Anthropometry.
Table of Contents:
  • The cast of David Kahanamoku
  • The gospel of the body
  • The "model youth"
  • A passion for measuring naked men
  • Barbarians and demigods
  • "Quite a different man"
  • The discovery of nothing
  • This was your life!