The Archaeology of American Capitalism

Theoretically guided by Marxist and Weberian understandings of the material and ideological processes of capitalism, Matthews (anthropology, Hofstra U.) explores how historical archaeology can contribute to the investigation of the development of capitalism in the United States through an examination of material culture at the levels of "use-value," "exchange-value," and "commodity fetishism" of objects. He offers chapters that focus in turn on the Native American trade in furs and other natural products at the beginning of American capitalism, the material evidence of inequality and exploitive labor relations in colonial American society, the transformation of class formation processes in New York City between 1790 and 1850, evidence for the progressive encompassing of greater and greater aspects of material culture by "victorious capitalism" in communities across the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries, the material culture of anti-capitalist and utopian communities of resistance, anti-capitalism within African-American communities, and debates over the role of historical archaeology in investigating capitalism. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)