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Lives In Ruins: Archeologists And The Seductive Lure Of Human Rubble (2014)

by Marilyn Johnson(Favorite Author)

3.82 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0062127187 (ISBN13: 9780062127181)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Harper

review 1: I was so looking forward to this book. I've always had an interest in this subject and took a couple of classes in college a million years ago. Yet even with my very limited knowledge, this book did not give me anything new. Yes, the author did travel to some amazing places and take part in some phenomenal digs. There were some interesting and humorous anecdotes. It's well written and reads like fiction. It flows seamlessly. Yet the majority of the book is bemoaning the life of the archaeologist. She writes on and on about the poor pay and much of the book seems to revolve around the politics of academia...funding, grants, paperwork. There is quite a bit about the lives of the archaeologists she meets and as you can imagine, they are interesting people. The book just wasn... more't what I expected. I think I expected more about the artifacts and excavations.
review 2: This is a book about the lives of archeologists. The summary seemed quite promising and the reviews looked positive. But the actual book was sorely disappointing. It's more like a talk show than a collection of essays. It jumps from person to person, without in-depth discussions of anything - be it places, problems, or people. About halfway into the book, I decided it was not worth my time. I could not recall learning anything of value about the scientific methods employed by the archeologists, compelling archeological mysteries, or specific technological innovations that lay at the heart of some of the success stories. Despite the claim that the book tells you about the work archeologists do, it doesn't focus on the science they do or the problems they have dedicated their lives to solve. The author is more interested in the day to day lives of these people. She has clearly tried to write a book focused on feeling not on learning. It is a book aimed at getting readers to empathize with the hard-work, low-reward careers of most archeologists, not on elucidating their major scientific contributions. less

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