Jerry Gershenhorn, a cultural anthropologist at Duke University, provides a closer look at the life and career of Melville J. Herskovits. A student of Franz Boas, Herskovits came to prominence for studying the links between African and New-World black culture, and established the African Studies Center at Northwestern. Gershenhorn contrasts the Jewish- and African-American experiences, neither vilifying nor blindly lauding his work.