The Fifty-Year Ethnographer: a review of Harry Wolcott's Ethnography Lessons: A primer

“Harry Wolcott uses fifty years of experience to take the reader inside the process of constructing an ethnographic study, offering a wealth of lessons from one of the masters of the genre”. This is indeed a concise description by the publisher. The text is constructed around the author’s five major studies. Wolcott thus gives a unique contribution to the field of ethnography as he presents some critical components of ethnography in his desire to share with us readers the results of his career-long search for the essence of ethnography. The book is divided into eight chapters. I give a critical review of the book, attempting to present the subject matter to potential readers, while drawing on its strengths and weaknesses.