Review of A White-Bearded Plainsman: The Memoirs of Archaeologist W. Raymond Wood. By W. Raymond Wood.

Authors

Peter Bleed, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

Spring 2012

Citation

Great Plains Research 22.1 (Spring 2012)

Comments

© 2012 Copyright by the Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Abstract

Over a period of more than 50 years, Ray Wood has published a string of major works on Great Plains culture history and other subjects. He has held important professional posts, interacted with a vast cohort, and trained a generation of midcontinent archaeologists. Beyond all that, Ray's memoir, A White-Bearded Plainsman, shows him to be a fine writer and terrific storyteller. Wood presents his story in chronological order, appropriate for a culture historian, but it happens that Ray came up at a time when Plains archaeology was blooming: his story describes the growth of Plains prehistory.