In recent years, Native American basketry has aroused the interest and admiration of individuals, from the scholar to the collector. It is a complex subject and offers an opportunity to study through time the various changes which transpired in its function, form and manufacture. Native American Basketry: A Living Legacy , by Frank W. Porter III, is the first major study of the subject since 1904, and presents a collection of essays written by those intimately familiar with the basket makers and basketry of North America. Illustrated with approximately 80 black-and-white photographs--many of which are historical records of basket makers and their baskets--Native American Basketry uses archaeological, ethnographic, historical and contemporary information in discussing the changes in native basketry from prehistoric times to the present. In spite of the wide range of habitats, as well as the social and cultural diversity of the basket-making tribes, it is surprising to discover the similar ways the basket makers adapted basketry after prolonged contact with nonIndian peoples. The book is especially well-suited not only for the scholar of American Indian art history, but cultural history as well. "This diligent compilation of information on the hand production of basketry by significant tribes in different geographical areas of the US and Canada is replete with black-and-white pictures of 20th-century baskets. An extensive bibliography at the end of each chapter includes materials from the historical past as well as references to circumstances that encouraged or discouraged the creation of basketry from indigenous materials by Native American groups. Contributors to this work are well versed in their respective areas. The book should be a value to artists, historians, and Native American scholars who wish a rather concise, contemporary overview of North American Indian basketry. Usually this type of detailed information is contained only in a portion of a volume dealing with a specific tribe or region." -- Choice FRANK W. PORTER III is the Director of the Chelsea House Foundation for American Studies. He was previously the Director of the American Indian Research and Resource Institute in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His other works include Strategies for Survival: American Indians in the Eastern United States (Greenwood Press, 1986) and Native American Basketry: An Annotated Bibliography (Greenwood Press, 1988).