![]() ![]() Britain and Ireland, which today are home to 68 million people, have hosted upright hominids of one kind or another for hundreds of thousands of years, with life always locked into the cycle of glaciation that periodically rendered the area virtually uninhabitable. Britain Begins by Barry CunliffeOxford University Press, 2013įans of archeologist Sir Barry Cunliffe's earlier books, including Europe Between the Oceans and his fantastic Facing the Ocean, will be well pleased with the appearance of his most comprehensive volume to date, Britain Begins, which not only looks at the whole canvas of life in Britain and Ireland from prehistoric to medieval times but does so without any subtitle at all, much less the 70-word subtitles now commonly used by publishers to calm readers who might be terrified at encountering a work of history at the bookstore that is their favorite coffee shop.Instead, Cunliffe commences right away his account of these far, far western islands, places regarded with fear and wonder by ancient writers such as Herodotus or Pliny the Elder, “places where normal rules held no sway, places where anything could happen.” Britain Begins is a big, beautifully-illustrated book that covers a vast amount of time. ![]()
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