The history of archaeology is nourished by many sources of information, including the books and monographs that reflect archaeology's changes through the years (compare, for example, the important works of Squier and Davis, of Kidder, and of Flanenry), the formal histories Of the discipline (few and far between, though we are fortunate to have the differing views of Trigger, of Willey and Sabloff, and most recently of Thomas Patterson), and not the least important, the occasional biography or autobiography of an archaeologist, such as the one here reviewed.

In his foreword C. MelvinAikens writes "Jesse D. Jennings is one of the most distinguished and influential founders of North American archaeology as it is known and practiced today, and this memoir offers a glimpse of the field's crucial growth period as reflected in the real-life experience of a leading protagonist". This is a fair appraisal-during Jennings' career archaeology has undergone profound changes and lie has played a major role in .many of them.