Material Culture: A Research Guide - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0700602755 ISBN 13: 9780700602759

Publisher: University Press of Kansas, 1985

Synopsis

This collection of essays brings together six distinguished scholars to examine the progress, problems, and potential of material culture studies in America. From the perspective of their respective disciplines—cultural geography, vernacular architecture, American studies, the history of technology, the decorative arts, and folklife studies—these widely respected authorities survey the major material culture research of the past two decades and assess the most creative and innovative work-in-progress.

Thomas J. Schlereth's introductory chapter provides a critical analysis of material culture evidence, articulating the distinctive quality of such data and focusing on the problematic nature of doing research with objects rather than with written records. The chapters that follow, five of which originally appeared in 1983 in a special issue of American Quarterly, represent a succinct summary of those fields and subfields of material culture scholarship that are at the cutting edge of current research. The volume includes an expanded, up-to-date bibliography that will be of use to a wide range of scholars.

Today American material culture studies remains a field where the most innovative work is occurring at the local or regional level. The essays in this volume suggest, however, that such work will be part of the wider evidential base and broader interpretive strategy out of which a new synthesis may develop.

About this title

About the Author

Thomas J. Schlereth is Director of Graduate Studies in American Studies at the University of Notre Dame and the author of Artifacts and the American Past; Material Culture Studies in America; and U.S. 40: A Roadscape of the American Experience.

Contributors: Kenneth L. Ames, Simon J. Bronner, Peirce F. Lewis, Carroll W. Pursell, Jr., Thomas J. Schlereth, and Dell Upton

From the Back Cover

The present collection contains essays by scholars who know the scope and significance of material culture within their respective disciplines of cultural geography, vernacular architecture, the history of technology, the decorative arts, and folklife studies. An overview of this breadth cannot fully cover the expansive domain of the material culture.

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of Kansas
• Publication date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0700602755
• ISBN 13: 9780700602759
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 238
• Editor: Schlereth Thomas J.