A very important new book has just appeared:

         Jane P. Claney  ROCKINGHAM WARE IN AMERICAN CULTURE 1830-1930 READING
         AMERICAN HISTORICAL ARTIFACTS
         University Press of New England 2004 ($29.95 list price)

This book is important for the many historical archaeologists who find
Rockingham Ware on their sites, usually in small
quantities. However, it is also important as a powerful demonstration of
the strength of archaeology. If the book was
base only on two of its major sources of information (i.e. archival sources
and museum collections of whole specimens)
it would be a fine piece of scholarship. However, its conclusions on
gender, class and rural vs. urban setting could
ONLY have been done with archaeological data. The power of historical
archaeology, and especially the importance of
the work of many CRM archaeologists across America, make these more
cultural interpretations possible.

I strongly recommend this book to all on HISTARCH. I was on Jane Claney's
dissertation committee (the basis of
the book) but it was a study in American material culture rather than
archaeology per se (Chaired by Karen Calvert).

When someone asks you, 'why do archaeology' this book would be a good answer.

                                                         Bob Schuyler

Robert L. Schuyler
University of Pennsylvania Museum
33rd & Spruce Streets
Philadelphia, PA l9l04-6324

Tel: (215) 898-6965
Fax: (215) 898-0657
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