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Material Culture in America: Understanding Everyday Life. Ed. by Helen Sheumaker and Shirley T. Wajda. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 2008. 42Op. alkaline $95 (ISBN 978-1-57607-647-7).
From "attics" to "yard sales" and from "adolescence" to "shopping centers and shopping malls," the 193 entries in Material Culture in America: Understanding Everyday Life offer a glimpse into material culture in the United States over the past four hundred years. An introductory overview defines material culture studies in the United States. As the editors state in the introduction, "it is not yet possible within the confines of one volume to account for, describe, and discuss the full wealth of material culture created, used, and altered by various groups in the American experience" (xvii). This volume instead sets out to cover three aspects of the field of material culture. First, it describes the scholarly disciplines that incorporate material culture into their study of American history and society....