Freeman, Charles. Sites of Antiquity, from Ancient Egypt to the Fall of Rome.

Taunton, Somerset, UK: Somerset Books, 2009.

When it comes to subjects like history, I’m always a little suspicious of glossy, oversized picture books because so many of them stint on the text. You have to ask, “Would this still be a worthwhile book without the images?” In this case, I’m pleased to say, the answer is resoundingly “Yes.” The text in this well-produced volume does not merely accompany and identify the hundreds of illustrations, it expands on them a great deal.

Girouard, Mark. The English Town: A History of Urban Life.

New Haven: Yales University Press, 1990.

I’ve been an historian since I was quite young, even before I ever thought about what “history” meant. I’ve always lived more in the past and I’ve always perceived the world from the perspective of what came before, of how things got to be the way they are. My interests are very broad, from 11th century Norman military society, the role of the Germanic tribes in the decay of Rome, and pre-Columbian exploration, to the opening of the Santa Fe Trail, town-building on the American frontier, and the role of cavalry in the American Civil War. I have a special interest, though in what’s called “social history” — the story of ordinary people, acting on the world in the aggregate and upon each other, day by day, one at a time.