Through an exploration of the tactile pleasures of drinking vessels, Pitchers of American Life traces the role of these objects as representative art and collective tools-episodes of American history that resonate today in our everyday lives and yearnings for sociability and communion.

Generously illustrated, and richly woven with personal memoir, discussion ranges from vessels within ancient cultures and religious and family rituals to the growth of mass production and contemporary consumer culture. Shales blends the social histories of art/artifacts with memories of working on a museum installation crew, as an educator, and as a shopper; in each chapter he interprets a single object as a revealing time capsule.