This useful primer treats the growing interest in studying history through material culture. Although the authors are based in Britain, they are familiar with a wide range of Anglo-American material culture, making this book suitable for many audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. The book is targeted at those who are new to the field, but it also contains helpful methodological and theoretical topics that will interest more experienced scholars.
The authors handle the main themes of this handbook with considerable skill. Many scholars trained in documentary history often employ objects as illustrations of ideas and evidence derived from archives. Hannan and Longair emphasize a contextual approach to situate objects and behaviors in cultural patterns. They maintain that treating objects as a form of evidence requires disciplined study and methodologies more often associated with archaeology and art history than documentary history. They present a number of short case studies...