• The first full treatment of the origins and reception of the now well accepted Three Age System of successive Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages
• A fascinating contribution to the history of archaeology, deploying material from the deep historical to the personal and accidental

Readership: Scholars and students of archaeology and the history of science.

Peter Rowley-Conwy, Reader in Archaeology, Durham University

"important study...an excellent example of how to write the history of archaeology...essential reading" - Timothy Champion, Cambridge Archaeological Journal

"this is a fluent and readable book" - Current Archaeology

"...a fine and mature work..." - Christopher Evans, Antiquity 82

1: Chronologies in Conflict
2: The Construction of Prehistory: Copenhagen to 1836
3: The Three Age System as Predator: Copenhagen and Lund 1836-1850
4: The Disinterested Gentlemen: England to 1860
5: Scotland: The Creation of a Nation's Prehistory
6: Ireland: Realm of the Four Masters
7: Fighting it Through: England 1860-1880
8: Aftermath