Charles E. Orser, Jr., Research Professor at Vanderbilt University, is an anthropological historical archaeologist who investigates the modern world as it was created after about 1492. He is the author of over 90 professional articles and a number of books, has conducted excavations in the United States, Europe, and South America. . His research interests include post-Columbian historical archaeology; practice, network, and socio-spatial theory; enslavement; globalization and consumerism; social inequality, discrimination, and poverty. His regional interest is the Atlantic world, and his current project focuses on the early seventeenth-century Puritan colony on the island of Providencia, Colombia.

Section I: Foundations of Historical ArchaeologyChapter 1 What Is Historical Archaeology?
Chapter 2 A Brief History of Historical Archaeology
Chapter 3 Culture, History, and Archaeological Sites
Chapter 4 Time and Space

Section II: Doing Historical ArchaeologyChapter 5 Site Survey and Location in Historical Archaeology
Chapter 6 Pre-Excavation Fieldwork: Documents, Interviews, Buildings
Chapter 7 Archaeological Fieldwork: Field and Laboratory
Chapter 8 Artifacts and Interpretation in Historical Archaeology
Chapter 9 Historical Archaeology and Cultural Resource Management

Section III: Interpretation in Historical ArchaeologyChapter 10 Theory in Historical Archaeology
Chapter 11 The Historical Archaeology of Individuals and Groups
Chapter 12 Global Historical Archaeology and Modern-World Archaeology
Chapter 13 Historical Archaeology and The Past Today

Guide to Further Reading
Glossary

Significantly revised and expanded, the new edition of this popular text provides a short, readable introduction to historical archaeology. The overall approach is descriptive and explanatory: it describes fundamental principles, the history of the field, and basic definitions; archaeological methods and discusses topics such as time and space, historical artifacts, survey, and excavation; and then presents basic archaeological theories and research. This comprehensive book also includes a look at career prospects in the field for interested students.