His and Hers builds a foundation for the synthesis of two of the most exciting fields in scholarship today: cultural studies and the history of technology. Hayden White first helped open up the domain of cultural studies in history by arguing that ideas and images not only reflect culture, they serve to construct it. This book takes that idea a step further, systematically showing how culture gets inscribed into artifacts and how human intermediation and negotiation construct the meanings of objects and culture. - Robert L. Frost, University of Michigan