This is a lavishly produced work of 192 pages with over 300 illustrations, 59 of them in colour. The layout, the photographs and the varied and interesting graphics are all a very high standard. In particular I was impressed with the reproduction of watercolours from Ramsauers’s excavations at Halstatt in the mid-19th century. If only resources allowed today’s archaeologists the time to be able to paint finds in situ! The layout of the book, with inset texts, maps, diagrams and illustrated reconstructions is bright, modern and accessible. The book however is also quite remarkably ambitious. To cover from c.500 B.C. to the present day in one volume is a daunting task. Sadly it seems to have been a task beyond the author. Before detailing some of the howlers in this work the general tenor of its approach can be understood by noting that the 2 pages devoted to the Picts are somewhat overpowered by the almost 40 pages devoted to "The Celts and the Classical World". The Romans and Greeks crop up elsewhere extensively too. It could be said that in attempting a general overview of Celtic history in this fashion it is necessary to draw heavily upon Classical sources and thus the Romans and Greeks are of primary importance. Well it seems to this reviewer that the author is still thirled to the Diffusionist concept of history and I doubt if he has read Colin Renfrew’s seminal Archaeology and Language which put Diffusionism to sleep for once and for all.

Perhaps one should be charitable and allow for the scope of the subject and a hangover from the Classical obsession of British historians to give some excuse for the problems in this work. On p. 25 James poses the question " ..if Classical culture was so obviously superior, why was its influence confined to a few chiefdoms, quite distant from Classical centres?", while dealing with Halstatt culture. He clearly intends to try and redress the ridiculous idea of "Civilized" Rome and the "savage" barbarians that has bedevilled so much of our historiography. Unfortunately good intentions are not enough. James is on secure ground in dealing with Halstatt, La Tene and the Classical world but his knowledge of the Celtic world is deficient. A small but telling point - in describing the Hochdorf chamber burial he refers to the fact that there are nine dishes and drinking horns and compares it to the ideal number for a Greek symposium or drinking party. Perhaps there is Greek influence but the merest glance at the folklore of the Celtic world would show that nine was a very significant number to the Celts, as well as to the peoples of Scandinavia. While assuming the pose of refusing to accept the superiority of Classical "civilizations" it would appear the idea is so ingrained in him that it must come out. On page 155 he tells us "We are not certain it (Beltain) was celebrated outside Ireland ...". This shows a disgraceful lack of research. When on p 128 he refers to Gauls " seeking imperial assistance in their internal squabbles" his language betrays him. This is like his statement on p74 where he refers to the Celtic "love of war" which he seems unable to differentiate from a love of battle. A bit of research would have shown him that the ideal fight for a Celtic warrior was one-on-one, examples of which took place in Scotland as late as the 18th century. And there is the rub. This book with its apparent attempt at trying to redress the balance between the civilizing Romans and the barbarian Celts is just as hidebound by ideas of Classical superiority as so much of the historigraphy of Scotland that we now have grounds for rejecting. In Scotland the last Celtic warrior society which had survived through millennia finally disappeared on the field of Culloden. How much attention is paid in this book on the CELTS to Scottish Highland society? 30 lines. He tells us that Scotland was Christianized from Ireland but makes no mention of Candida Casa. In addition Mr. James tells us that outside of Ireland ogam exists only on the west coast of Britain (sic), usually accompanied by a Latin translation (p.163), that the Picts "spoke a non-Indo-European tongue of unknown affinity "(p170), as well as a form of Celtic, that Irish souterrains exist only in Ulster (p156) - I must have been seeing things on the Dingle peninsula, that the Book of Kells is a Hiberno-Saxon work (p175) and last but not least that I speak a "dialect of English ( known confusingly as Scots)" (p171)!

Despite the lavish production and the admirable ambition in attempting such a work this is a book that is strong on the author’s areas of speciality - The Celtic Iron Age, the Roman Empire and the Roman army - and is a disgraceful piece of shoddy hack work in dealing with a great many other aspects of Celtic history and culture. The approach in terms of accessability, lay-out, illustration etc. is exemplary but for a volume purporting to be a fair representation of the history of the Celtic peoples, as a member of a still (barely) extant Celtic nation I can only say that it both perpetrates past mistakes and adds a few of its own.

Stuart McHardy