Galaxy Formation: Clues from the Milky Way

Stellar Populations are the fossil record of Galactic evolution. Interpretation of this record in the Local Group allows one to determine reliably the dominant physics controlling the evolution of those galaxies which are typical of the luminosity in the Universe, and is an essential prerequisite to understanding necessarily limited data at high redshifts. In our Galaxy, the key issues are the places and times of formation and merger of the oldest stellar populations : the halo, thick disk and bulge - and their overlaps and evolutionary relationships, if any. New results on studies of the stellar initial mass function at high redshift, the stellar populations of the Galactic bulge, and the merger history of the Galactic disk are reviewed.