John Alexander Forrest – Professor Emeritus, Purchase College SUNY, Purchase, NY,  USA

Series: Anthropology Research and Developments
BISAC: SOC008000; SOC005000
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52305/FGEG6421

“Forrest challenges cherished orthodoxies by resurrecting a Boasian style of holistic anthropology in Messy Ethnography: Does Englishness Exist? In an important departure from traditional ethnographies of England, the author embraces contemporary British national multi-ethnicity; neglected in other ethnographies, this aspect leaves the impression that the English nation is exclusively White, middle class, and speak English.  For example, Forrest examines the languages and places of birth of current residents of England, noting that Polish, not South Asian languages, is the commonest second language spoken after English.  I strongly endorse this significant work for publication.” –  Dr. Carole Crumley, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology,  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC USA

“John Forrest has an impressive publication record, and the proposed volume promises to be another well written and valuable addition to the anthropological and related literature. I endorse your publication of Messy Culture.” – Dr. Barbara Miller, Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs, George Washington University, Washington, DC USA

“Social life is messy, uncertain, and emotional. If our desire is to research social life, then we must embrace a research method that, to the best of its/our ability, acknowledges and accommodates mess and chaos, uncertainty and emotion.” – Adams, Jones, and Ellis in Autoethnography: Understanding Qualitative Research

Messy Ethnography takes this quotation seriously. Chapters 1 to 3 pursue a critique of traditional methods of qualitative research and ethnographic writing, not simply pointing out the many flaws, as has been done many times already, but presenting constructive alternatives where needed. The result is a clear-eyed way forward. Chapters 4 to 15 put the lessons from the theoretical first chapters to the test using English culture as a case study. It asks the most obvious questions: Does Englishness exist? If so, where does it exist? What does it look like? etc. etc. The answers are found in a moderately holistic approach that incorporates data from physical anthropology, history and archeology, linguistics and folklore as well as cultural studies. Considerable emphasis is given to how the Georgian and Victorian eras laid down so much of what is considered Englishness today. The book is somewhat autoethnographic, somewhat reflexive, somewhat emic, and somewhat etic (given that I was not born in England, but my mother was English, and I lived there for 9 years – and return regularly because I have family and close friends living there). I am not an insider, not an outsider.

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