After Modernity

`...encompasses all the recent work on the archaeology of ourselves...transform[ing] archaeology into a discipline that can both contribute to a wide range of contemporary social issues and provide new insights for anthropology, sociology, heritage and cultural geography.' Ian Hodder, Stanford Archaeology Center

`...an eloquent argument that the transformation of things and landscapes haunts the contemporary imagination.' Clive Gamble, Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London

`...shows versatility to the full, using archaeological theory and technique to reflect on the materiality of our contemporary world.' Martin Hall, University of Salford

Can the approaches of a discipline which has been developed to explore the distant past be used to understand the present? How can the excavation of the recent past bring to light new insights into what it means to be us? Drawing on case studies both exotic and quotidian, from IKEA to the Cold War, from the archaeology of an abandoned theme park to Nevada's bright lights and desert, and from the back streets of Malta to the departure lounge at London's Heathrow Airport, Rodney Harrison and John Schfield explore what happens if we take an archaeological approach to developed, post-industrial societies from the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. Their book is an invaluable introduction to the ways in which archaeologists approach the study of the recent and contemporary past, drawing together the insights of a range of perspectives. In doing so, it presents a new agenda for the study of the materiality of late modern societies.

Rodney Harrison is Lecturer in Heritage Studies at The Open Univesity.
John Schofield is Director of Studies in Cultural Heritage Management at the University of York.