"By analyzing what she describes as richly detailed archaeological site biographies, De Cunzo reconstructs how Delaware's farming people actively created their identities and shaped their interactions at home, at work, at church, and in the marketplace as they began to confront industrial capitalism. Informed by a contextual, interpretive perspective, this valuable work reveals the complex interrelationships among environment, technology, economy, social order, and cultural praxis that defined the "cultures of agriculture" in Delaware during the last three centuries."--Jacket.

"Examines the role that country storekeeper Samuel Rex of Schaefferstown, Pennsylvania, played in the society and economy of the mid-Atlantic region from 1790 to 1807. Studies consumption patterns of one typical Pennsylvania-German community"--Provided by publisher.