This book provides a survey of contemporary archaeology in the United States, demonstrating the plurality of theoretical and methodological approaches that make this discipline in the US unique.
The American Experience in Archaeological Perspective
Edited by Michael S. Nassaney, and Krysta Ryzewski, Wayne State UniversitySeries Description:
The American Experience in Archaeological Perspective series was established by the University Press of Florida and founding editor Michael S. Nassaney in 2004. This prestigious historical archaeology series focuses attention on a range of significant themes in the development of the modern world from an Americanist perspective. Each volume explores an event, process, setting, institution, or geographic region that played a formative role in the making of the United States of America as a political, social, and cultural entity. These comprehensive overviews underscore the theoretical, methodological, and substantive contributions that archaeology has made to the study of American history and culture. Rather than subscribing to American exceptionalism, the authors aim to illuminate the distinctive character of the American experience in time and space. While these studies focus on historical archaeology in the United States, they are also broadly applicable to historical and anthropological inquiries in other parts of the world. To date the series has produced more than two dozen titles. Prospective authors are encouraged to contact the Series Editors to learn more.
Watch our informational webinar hosted by series editors Michael S. Nassaney and Krysta Ryzewski, contributing author Jane Eva Baxter, and acquiring editor Mary Puckett. Read about the history and future direction of the series here.
For more Information:
Michael S. Nassaney
(269) 387-3981
Fax: 269-387-3970
michael.nassaney@wmich.edu
Krysta Ryzewski
Wayne State University
Dept. of Anthropology
Detroit, MI 48202
krysta.ryzewski@wayne.edu
There are 28 books in this series.
Please note that while you may order forthcoming books at any time, they will not be available for shipment until shortly before publication date
The first comprehensive discussion of the historical archaeology of homelessness, this book highlights the social complexities, ambiguities, and significance of the home and the unhomed in the archaeological record.
In this expansive yet concise survey, Christopher Fennell discusses archaeological research from sites across the United States that once manufactured, harvested, or processed commodities, uncovering key insights into American history.
In this book, John Franzen surveys archaeological studies of logging sites across the nation from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, explaining how material evidence found at these locations illustrates key aspects of the American experience during this era.
This volume describes the ways Native American populations accommodated and resisted the encroachment of European powers in southeastern North America from the arrival of Spaniards in the sixteenth century to the first decades of the American Republic. Tracing changes to the region’s natural, cultural, social, and political environments, Charles Cobb provides an unprecedented survey of the landscape histories of Indigenous groups across this critically important area and time period.
The Archaeology of Prostitution and Clandestine Pursuits synthesizes case studies from various nineteenth-century sites where material culture reveals evidence of prostitution, including a brothel in Five Points, New York City’s most notorious neighborhood, and parlor houses a few blocks from the White House and Capitol Hill.
Excavations at cities including New York and Philadelphia reveal that slavery was a crucial part of the expansion of urban life as late as the 1840s. The case studies in this book also show that enslaved African-descended people frequently staffed suburban manor houses and agricultural plantations. Moreover, for free blacks, racist laws such as the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 limited the experience of freedom in the region. Delle explains how members of the African diaspora created rural communities of their own and worked in active resistance against the institution of slavery.
This is the first book to focus on archaeological evidence from the recent past related to children, childhood, and adolescence. Jane Baxter, a foremost authority on the archaeology of historic American childhood, synthesizes the growing variety of ways researchers have been approaching the topic, guiding readers through an abundance of current data on the experiences of children in American history.
Utopian and intentional communities have dotted the American landscape since the colonial era, yet only in recent decades have archaeologists begun analyzing the material culture left behind by these groups. The case studies in this volume use archaeological evidence to reveal how these communities upheld their societal ideals—and how some diverged from them in everyday life.
Synthesizing fifty years of research on American mining sites that date from colonial times to the present, Paul White provides an ideal overview of the field for both students and professionals.