This webinar features a discussion of The Historical Archaeology of Michigan by Dean L. Anderson, Michael S. Nassaney, and Krysta Ryzewski, a new volume in the University Press of Florida series the American Experience in Archaeological Perspective. The archaeological findings discussed in this book highlight Anishinaabe peoples, settler colonialism, immigrants, agriculture, industry, and urbanization, and illustrate the distinct ways in which the American experience was lived in Michigan. From that perspective, the book provides a comprehensive treatment of both the history and the trajectory of historical archaeology scholarship in the state. Of equal importance, the book underscores the significant role Michigan archaeologists played in the growth and maturation of historical archaeology in the U.S., including the work of pioneering scholars like George Quimby, Charles Cleland, and Arnold Pilling.

Written by three archaeologists who have dedicated more than seventy-five years to research in the state, the chapters in this book describe the construction of encampments and fortifications that facilitated seventeenth-century European colonization; the rise of the fur trade and natural resource extraction; the impact of land acquisition by white settlers who built farmsteads, logging camps, and mining operations in the nineteenth century; and the survivance of Indigenous people through resilience and adaptation to dramatically changing social, political, and environmental circumstances. Finally, the authors examine Detroit’s urban development, revealing how industrial capitalism led to inequality and segregation.

Michigan has long been an incubator for invention, technology, and creativity. The Historical Archaeology of Michigan illustrates this legacy and demonstrates how Michigan’s history and cultures reflect the broader American experience through themes of entrepreneurship, immigration, capitalism, and civil rights. Further, the book offers a picture of Michigan’s landscapes, people, and materiality over the past four hundred years, and provides a sense of the breadth of historical archaeology more generally and its potential to impart a better understanding of the recent past.