This text explains how historical archaeologists use historical texts, maps, oral testimonies, and other materials in conjunction with excavated artifacts, old buildings and relict landscapes to decipher the recent past. Further, it discusses how archaeological detectives find sites, excavate them, analyze and classify the artifacts, and how they develop explanations from all the information they have collected. Addrssing some of today's most important issues from a historical archaeological perspective, the text explores topics such as the identification and symbolization of ethnicity, the development and maintenance of class differences, changes in gender roles and the recognition of women in history, and the material manifestations of race. These issues are supported by an abundance of global examples from sites where archaeologists have tackled these complex issues.