The issues that engaged John Stuart Mill might have been taken from today's headlines: liberty, education, democracy, the environment, economic growth, sexual equality. In this timely volume, two leading scholars, Wendy Donner and Richard Fumerton, examine Mill's primary philosophical writings to get to the very heart of his ideas and his legacy.

Acknowledgments. Notes on Contributors. Foreword: Cheryl Mwaria. 1. Introduction: The Writer in the Anthropologist: Maria D. Vesperi and Alisse Waterston. Part I: Conceptions. 2. Speaking Truth to Power with Books: Howard Zinn. 3. Remember When Writing Was Fun? Why Academics Should Go On a Low Syllable, Active Voice Diet: Karen Brodkin. 4. The Bard: Carolyn Nordstrom. 5. Saggin' and Braggin': Lee D. Baker. 6. Stories for Readers: A Few Observations from Outside the Academy: Andrew Barnes. Part II: Creations. 7. Writing Poverty, Drawing Readers: Stories in Love, Sorrow and Rage: Alisse Waterston. 8. Write-ous Indignation: Black Girls, Dilemmas of Cultural Domination and the Struggle to Speak the Skin We Are In: Signithia Fordham. 9. Writing Truth to Power: Racism as Statecraft: Arthur K. Spears. 10. Remembering Octavia: Sharon Ball. 11. Believing in Anthropology as Literature: Ruth Behar. Part III: Receptions. 12. Walking in Zora's Shoes or "Seek[ing] Out de Inside Meanin' of Words": The Intersections of Anthropology, Ethnography, Identity, and Writing: Irma McClaurin. 13. Off the Shelf and Into Oblivion?: Catherine Kingfisher. 14. "Don't Use Your Data as a Pillow": S. Eben Kirksey. 15. The Trope of the Pith Helmet: America's Anthropology, Anthropology's America: Micaela di Leonardo. 16. The Book that Wrote Me: Roger Sanjek. 17. Fighting Words: Paul Farmer. 18. Taking Chances: Maria D. Vesperi. Index.