This volume offers lively current debates and case studies in historical archaeology selected from around the world, including North America, Latin America, Africa, the Pacific, and Europe. It was authored by 19 experts in the field. It explores how historical archaeologists think about their work, piecing together information from both material culture and documents in an attempt to understand the lives of the people and societies they study. It engages with current theory in an accessible manner. It is truly global in its approach but avoids subsuming local experiences of people into global patterns. It summarizes not only the current state of historical archaeology, but also sets the course for the field in decades to come.