Historical Archaeology in a Nutshell is a textbook for students studying historical archaeology for the first time.

The book presents historical archaeology’s contribution to understanding the world in a series of bite-sized, topic-specific, and intellectually contextualized chapters that do not presuppose much prior knowledge of archaeology. Each chapter covers a theme commonly explored by historical archaeologists such as identity, race and racialization, colonization and Indigenous peoples, diasporas and transnationalism, religion, and war. Chapters can be read in any order in about 30 minutes and show why and how archaeologists explore the topic. Each starts with something about ontology (why would anyone care about this topic?), explains the range of approaches archaeologists apply to it, presents a relevant case study that synthesizes method and theory, and concludes with some thought-provoking discussion questions. Using examples from around the world, the book supports historical archaeology as a global discipline.

As supplementary reading in an introductory archaeology course or as one of the main texts in a course dedicated to historical archaeology, this book will provide students with a focused and easily comprehensible introduction to the subject.