Awards

• Winner of Historians of British Art Book Prize 2010

Overview

Welcoming 800,000 visitors each year, Stonehenge is the most famous prehistoric monument in all of Europe. It has inspired modern replicas throughout the world, including one constructed entirely of discarded refrigerators. This curious structure is the subject of cult worship, is a source of pride for Britons, and offers an intellectual challenge for academics. It has captured the imagination and the attention of thousands of people for thousands of years. Over the centuries, “experts” have tried to discover the meaning behind Stonehenge. While each new theory contradicts earlier speculation, every new proposal attributes a purpose to the site. From bards of the twelfth century to Black Sabbath, from William Blake to archaeologists of the twenty-first century, Stonehenge has embodied a wealth of intention. Was it designed for winter solstice, for goddess worship, or as a funerary temple? While all have been suggested, even “proven,” the mystery continues. Through the eyes of its most eloquent apologists, Rosemary Hill guides the reader on a tour of Stonehenge in all its cultural contexts, as a monument to many things—to Renaissance Humanism, Romantic despair, Victorian enterprise, and English Radicalism. In the end, the stones remain compelling because they remain mysterious—apparently simple yet incomprehensible—that is the wonder, the enchantment, of Stonehenge.

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9780674072299

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Reviews

[A] witty, erudite book...[Hill's] book is a treasure: stylish, thoughtful, miraculously condensed, and as full of knowledge as a megalith is full of megalith. -- John Carey Sunday Times 20080608 For several hundred years, people have believed that Stonehenge is connected to the druids, so ardently that public outcry eventually drove the government, which had closed the monument to keep it from vandalism and other deterioration, reopened it for latter-day druidic ceremonies on the summer solstice. Such is the power of the most popular understanding of Stonehenge. Readable and well-researched, this is an excellent primer on that and the other varying ways that people have interpreted the enigmatic and iconographic arrangement of stones, ranging from theater for human sacrifice to carhenge and other ironic re-creations. -- Patricia Monaghan Booklist 20081101

For several hundred years, people have believed that Stonehenge is connected to the druids, so ardently that public outcry eventually drove the government, which had closed the monument to keep it from vandalism and other deterioration, reopened it for latter-day druidic ceremonies on the summer solstice. Such is the power of the most popular understanding of Stonehenge. Readable and well-researched, this is an excellent primer on that and the other varying ways that people have interpreted the enigmatic and iconographic arrangement of stones, ranging from theater for human sacrifice to carhenge and other ironic re-creations.--Patricia Monaghan Booklist (11/01/2008)

Author Information

Rosemary Hill is a distinguished independent scholar and award-winning author. She is a Trustee of the Victorian Society and a member of the editorial board of the London Review of Books.

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