"You can tell a lot about people by looking at their stuff - the things they make, process, and value. That is the idea that drives the field of material cultur

A collection of essays that examine early American cultural, political, and social history through a material lens, exploring the meanings of objects ranging fr

America stocks its shelves with mass-produced goods but fills its imagination with handmade folk objects. In Pennsylvania, the "back to the city" housing moveme

The country's leading authority on use of artifactual evidence in historical research collects twenty-five classic essays and gives his overview of the field of

Why do we acquire the things we do? Behind this apparently ingenuous question are several answers, some straightforward and others more interesting. To feed our