Hello Anna -
I often have my students read In Small Things Forgotten in the same week as Stan South's "Method and Theory in Historical Archaeology" (which was also published in 1977). In my view "Method and Theory" is a crucial book for understanding the history of the discipline, and for understanding In Small Things. It includes a foreword from Lew Binford that ends with the line, "Welcome historic sites archaeology to the science of archaeology"...
I also think that Mark Leone's "Archaeology of Liberty in an American Capital" (2010), and Laurie Wilkie's "Archaeology of Mothering" (2003) are among the essential basic building-blocks for any class in historical archaeology.
Best wishes,
Dan
........................................
Dan Hicks MIfA, FSA
Associate Professor in Archaeology, University of Oxford
Curator of Archaeology, Pitt Rivers Museum
Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.stx.ox.ac.uk/people/fellow/associate-professor-dan-hicks
https://twitter.com/DrDanHicks

On 16 Oct 2014, at 15:47, Anna Agbe-Davies <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hello HistArchers,

I'm building a new course (undergrad historical archaeology) for next year and I thought this might make an interesting topic for conversation, so after consulting the syllabi on the SHA webpage, I'm wondering:

What is the one book (besides In Small Things Forgotten--which is pretty much ubiquitous) that you like best for teaching an undergraduate course in historical archaeology? And, even more crucially, why?

I'll go first.  For me, there's no book like Uncommon Ground for the clarity and unfussiness of the writing, the balance between text and artifact data in the argument, and the clear social message of the entire project.

(Then again, I use it every year for another class, so I'm going to resist my impulse to include it on this syllabus, too!)

Happy Thursday, all,

Anna