The Oxford Illustrated History of Prehistoric Europe (Oxford Illustrated Histories)

Rating:
Summary: Scholarly but generally readable
Review: I believe this is designed to be a college textbook, but I found my self fascinated by it. As with any text, readibility is sometimes sacrificed for scholarly accuracy, and rightly so, I suppose. But I found enough life in the text to make this a compelling read, given the breadth of the topic and the depth in which it is examined. I also found the illustrations to be directly relative to the text, which does not always happen, even in college texts. Of course, to get really into a book like this, one has to have an inborn interest in the topic. It's not going to be for everyone, and that is why I gave it three stars instead of four. Still, I found the book to be a satisfactory combination of hard scholarship and general interest history to make my want to keep my copy. My only complaint is that, not knowing European geography as I would like to, it was difficult to follow many of the detailed discourses about the different tribal movements from place to place. Perhaps more maps would help. In the end, it's hard, scholarly history, but if that's your thing, it's a keeper.

Rating:
Summary: Dry dry dry, but not bad
Review: This book is very dry in writing style (even though there are multiple authors) but is nevertheless a worthwhile read. The illustrations are the best part, showing many interesting artifacts from early human history. It would have been better if the authors had excercised more judgement and selection. Many sections seem to be summaries of academic research reports without any clear significance to the lay reader.

Rating:
Summary: Scholarly work
Review: This book was written by a large team of authors, each of whom wrote a particular chapter. I assume, therefore, that they have special expertise in that particular period or subject, and although this work may be a little too dry and scholarly for some, I found it provided excellent coverage and that it was still readable. The book benefits from recent research which the chapter authors discuss, and the illustrations are excellent, with the many pictures of artifacts, works of art, and grave excavations that I hadn't seen before in other works being probably the most striking thing about the book. Also, I would like to compliment the author of the excellent and very detailed discussion of copper and bronze metallurgy, where he discusses the advantages of two-piece castings of hand-axes in the later Bell-Beaker culture using arsenical copper, which aids both hardness and castability, which was very interesting. And in general, the dicussions of archaeological finds relating to improvements in cultural artifacts such as pottery making, metallurgy, weapons, and building techniques are one of the major strengths of the book. Overall, a worthwhile read although possibly a little too dry and technical for many people, and actually, I would give it 4.5 stars if I could.