Quickly vanishing in our own time, less than a century ago family-operated farms were a predominant way of life in North America. Since the 1600s the agriculture practiced on American farms has been a catalyst of both geographic settlement and economic expansion. During the 19th century, four generations of the Nicholas Gibbs family operated a successful farm in Knox County, East Tennessee.

In this book, archaeology and historical information are combined with strands of thought in world systems theory and the Annales school of French social history to explore the influence of rural capitalism upon everyday life and material conditions at a Southern Appalachian farmstead. Focusing upon the domestic landscape, architecture, and household items, consideration of material life reveals the presence of a substantial folk orientation among the Gibbs family that was also significantly influenced by larger trends within national-level consumerism and popular culture.

An Archaeological Study of Rural Capitalism and Material Life will be of interest to historical archaeologists, cultural anthropologists, social historians, and historical sociologists, especially researchers studying the influence of globalization and economic development upon rural regions like Appalachia.