This republication of Historical Archaeology and the Importance of Material Things includes the original volume's contents: a Foreword by Stanley South and articles by Ferguson, Deetz, Binford, Glassie, Rathje, Leone, and Fitting, in that order. These are followed by an Afterword prepared by Leland Ferguson for this republication. I am pleased to see Importance back in print, as well as the discussion that should be generated as we look at historical archaeology of the last century and contrast it with our field in the new century, as presented in Importance II (Schablitsky and Leone 2012). Papers of the Thematic Symposium, Eighth Annual Meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology; Charleston, South Carolina, January 7-11, 1975.