Book reviews

THL PHILIPPINES AND THE UNITED STATES: By Garel A. Grunder and William E. Livezey. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press. 1951, pp. xi + 315.

POPULATION BULLETIN, No. 1, December, 1951. United Nations (Department of Social Affairs, Population Division). (U.N. Publications ST/SOA/Ser. N/1), pp. iv + 57.

THE MISTAKEN LAND: By Michael Ardizzone. London, The Falcon Press, 1951.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: By K. C. Wheare. London. Oxford University Press, 1951. pp. 278.

CURRENT RESEARCH IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (March 1952), Pp. v + 194. 8¾” × 5¼”.     

Beyond Iron Age ‘towns’: Examining oppida as examples of low‐density urbanism

The question of whether Late Iron Age oppida in Europe were truly ‘urban’ has dominated debate over these sites since the nineteenth century. Oppida have been surprisingly absent from comparative urban studies, however, despite increasingly nuanced perspectives on the nature and diversity of the urban phenomenon. In particular, Roland Fletcher's implication that oppida might represent part of a broader alternative form of low‐density urbanism has been largely overlooked, by Iron Age scholars and urbanism specialists alike. With the complex nature of many oppida now becoming increasingly apparent, I suggest it is a pertinent time to assess Fletcher's claim and examine whether oppida can be convincingly compared to low‐density urbanism elsewhere in the world and, if so, what implications this might have for understanding Iron Age societies. This paper argues that oppida do indeed display aspects of low‐density urbanism and that this is likely to be due to the negotiated nature of power in Iron Age societies.