Abstract
MR. GORDON HOME'S account of “Roman Britain” in Messrs. Benn's attractive little “Sixpenny Library” is a model of concise popularisation. Apart from the many difficulties and obscurities which are involved in the study of the period of Eoman occupation in Britain, the necessary concentration on technical details in the reports of excavations, and the lack of a comprehensive historical background, have militated, against popular interest in this important element in the composition of the cultures of Britain. This is notwithstanding the fact that discoveries relating to the Roman occupation are more frequent and usually tell more than those of any other period of the early history of Great Britain. Mr. Home has provided exactly the background that is needed to promote such an interest. He tells a clear consecutive story in which, without shirking difficulties, he has given a reasonable interpretation, while avoiding controversial details which might confuse his readers as well as be irrelevant to his main purpose. The stress he lays on purely British culture and its gradual interpenetration by Roman influence, as well as the view taken of the state of the country at the close of the occupation, are useful correctives of popular misconception.
Roman Britain.
Gordon
Home
By. (Benn's Sixpenny Library, No. 4.) Pp. 80. (London: Ernest Benn, Ltd., 1927.) 6d.
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Roman Britain. Nature 121, 241 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/121241b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/121241b0