Franz Boas – 1858-1942

Boas was born and educated in Germany, but earned his greatest fame as professor of anthropology at Columbia University (New York City) from 1899 to 1942. During this period he developed the relativistic approach to anthropology, which focused nonjudgmentally on the variety of human cultures, and which became the preeminent definition of the field. Boas taught a generation of great American anthropologists, including Margaret Mead. Boesky, Ivan (1937– ) Boesky rose to fame and wealth as an arbitrageur—essentially a stock trader who bet on the outcome of corporate takeovers. Boesky’s tactics were characterized as brazen, and, as it turned out, were based on tips he received from corporate insiders, a form of “insider trading” in violation of federal law. His plea bargain in the mid 1980s became iconic of the era’s corporate greed—and he himself earned additional notoriety for a 1986 speech at the University of California, Berkeley, in which he proclaimed “I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.”