The Archaeology of American Cities. By Nan A. Rothschild and Diana diZerega Wall (Gainesville, University Press of Florida, 2014) 265 pp. $69.95 Unavailable

Although scholars from many disciplines use the terms archaeology and artifact metaphorically in their considerations of the dynamic and multilayered processes at play in urban spaces, Rothschild and diZerega Wall use the terms literally in The Archaeology of American Cities to introduce readers to “possibly one of the most important inventions in history” (xi), the city. Drawing our attention to the deep understanding that an archaeology of the city provides, they synthesize past and current urban archaeological research on modern American cities to show how a privy, a well, a household, a landscape can reveal everyday experiences and social relations at local and global levels. This volume considers American urban spaces with both macro (the city) and micro (city residents and their consumption patterns in terms of race, class, ethnicity, and gender) scales of analysis, while looking at the complex interrelation of materiality and the documentary record that historical archaeology...