Sunday, June 7, 2009

Archaeology Book Reviews on H-Urban

Reviews of archaeological books on urbanism are starting to appear on the H-Urban Forum. I have been a review editor for H-Urban for just under a year, charged with increasing coverage of ancient cities. My first review has just been published, by Steve Lekson on:

Fletcher, Roland (1995) The Limits of Settlement Growth: A Theoretical Outline. Cambridge University Press, New York.

Although the book is not new, it was recently released in paperback, which justifies the review; I also think the book is very important and deserves wider readership.

The following reviews have been submitted and edited, and will appear soon on H-Urban:

Bauer, Brian S. (2004) Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inca State. University of Texas Press, Austin.

Dobbins, John J. and Pedar W. Foss (editors) (2007) The World of Pompeii. Routledge, New York.

Marcus, Joyce and Jeremy Sabloff (editors) (2008) The Ancient City: New Perspectives on Urbanism in the Old and New World. SAR Press, Santa Fe.

I also have a bunch of books out for review right now.

Robert Chidester, another new review editor for H-Urban, is a historical archaeologist, and he has commissioned a number of reviews on urban topics related to archaeology. This is a fertile time for urban research by historical archaeologists, with a bunch of good recent books. One of the first of these that will appear soon on H-Urban is a review of this outstanding book:

Voss, Barbara L. (2008) The Archaeology of Ethnogenesis: Race and Sexuality in Colonial San Francisco. University of California Press, Berkeley.

If you know of new books on ancient/preindustrial urbanism that should be reviewed by H-Urban, drop me a line. Also, if you would be interested in reviewing books, let me know. Right now I do not have any new books to send out (some publishers are either very slow to send books, or perhaps they will not send them to H-Urban at all), but I get H-Net to solicit new books from publishers whenever I find a relevant title.

- posted from Toluca, Estado de México, where I am sorting sherds in order to understand the economy and society of the Aztec-period urban center of Calixtlahuaca.

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