Introduction: Anthropology During Difficult Times

Abstract

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… Charles Dickens wrote this about the era in which he set A Tale of Two Cities. That book was set in difficult times, an era when the grassroots found its voice, and forced revolutionary change. This issue of Practicing Anthropology is also being compiled during wonderful and difficult times. With the November elections just over, we saw a greater percentage of Americans exercise their right to speak through the vote than in any election since 1908. But the economy is encased in difficulties that push at the ideology that drives it, unemployment is rising, and the challenge of raising the national phoenix faces new President Barack Obama.