In Re-Constructing Archaeology, Shanks and Tilley aim to challenge the disciplinary practices of both traditional and the new archaeology and to present a radical alternative - a critically self-consious archaeology aware of itself as practice in the present, and equally a social archaeology that appreciates artefacts not merely as objects of analysis but as part of a social world of past and present that is charged with meaning. It aims to provide a fresh and invigorating contribution to the emergence of a philosophically and politically informed archaeology.