Coffman's reconstruction of Margaret Mead's spiritual life is a commendable intervention in our popular understanding of Margaret Mead. Like her faith, Margaret Mead cannot be easily categorized, and readers will walk away from this biography not only with a reminder of Mead's complex identity, but also with a view into what kinds of existences were possible within liberal Protestantism.
Elesha J. Coffman is Assistant Professor of history at Baylor University. She is the author of The Christian Century and the Rise of Mainline Protestantism (OUP, 2013).