History book reviews

2024-03-10 One of my frustrations reading archaeology is how little archaeologists dare to infer what people believed in the prehistoric past. This is ironic, because every archaeological find requires interpretation and speculation in the first place. Additionally, books on mythology tend to focus on the matured stories in classical literature rather than examine their origins and development before this. Therefore I hoped a book dedicated... Continue reading

2021-03-13 Just a selection of republished reviews where she briefly touches on a topic, then derides whichever academic’s work she’s reviewing. A single sentence in a book that she disagrees with results in the entire work being dismissed. Came across as personal and vindictive point-scoring to me. That’s also the one where she also laments that sexual predation by academics is no longer allowed! Rating:... Continue reading

2021-03-06 This book proved to be something of a disappointment. The first half covers the prehistory of the Fens, the second half is a travelers guide to pubs, cafes, and churches. There’s also a lot of inconsistency: for example, in the half about prehistory, there’s a section break and a new section about Pryor visiting a local aviation museum, which was completely out of place.... Continue reading

2021-01-17 Cummings provides a good, broad introduction to the Neolithic period in Britain and Ireland, that makes for accessible reading for a general interested audience as well as students looking to familiarize themselves better with the period. Although the focus is on the Neolithic, Cummings does cover the end of the Mesolithic and the start of the Bronze Age for context. Each chapter opens with... Continue reading

2020-09-08 A good introduction to the archaeology and history of Orkney. Different chapters provide a general overview of each historical period of Orkney, followed by sites and excavations to illustrate them. Recommended not just for those with an interest in the history of Orkney, but also for those with an interest in prehistory – especially considering the extensive and unique archaeological sites on the islands,... Continue reading

2020-06-07 Another good Very Short Introduction, this time covering the easily overlooked Hellenistic period. The second chapter provides an excellent overview of the political situation after the death of Alexander the Great, and the chapter on Ptolemaic Egypt is superb for even its brief coverage of Alexandrian scholarship. Other chapters aren’t so engaging but to be fair do help to provide more of an overview,... Continue reading

2020-06-04 Rather than a general popular book about the Picts, this is a series of essays about the more recent state of studies into the Picts by subject, accompanied by various site diagrams. In that regards it presents both an interesting catch-up on Pictish studies since Alex Woolf’s seminal work the previous decade, but the essays do repeat each other a little and the in-depth... Continue reading

2020-06-04 A very readable book written in a very entertaining manner that gives a great general overview of archaeology without laboring over the history of archaeology (cf, antiquarians) like most archaeology books do. It also does a great job of briefly covering key modern movements such as New Archaeology and Processual Archaeology without getting bogged down in details, as well as criticisms of colonialism. A... Continue reading

2020-05-29 An interesting book about the Palaeolithic, from the development of modern humans to the end of the last ice age. It aims for a popular and informative style without over-whelming the reader with details, and manages to consider various competing theories about different specifics. Overall, an interesting enough read, though a little outside of my direct interests, and was read more for a sense... Continue reading

2020-05-26 I borrowed this book from the library hoping for a good introduction to Classical Mythology. Instead I found this is a book all about Classical Reception. Of the 7 chapters in this book, only one begins to address the rise and development of mythology in the world of Ancient Greece and Rome. The rest is about how 20th century ideologies and architecture have appropriated... Continue reading