Customer Reviews

The Political Landscape: Constellations of Authority in Early Complex Polities

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This book is the best comparative treatment of early state political dynamics yet published. Smith (no relation) is erudite and a sophisticated thinker. He has great insight into all sorts of issues relating to ancient and modern states and political systems. Many past archaeological works on early states are in for serious criticism here. The level or thinking and writing can be difficult in places, but the book is well worth the effort.

In brief, Smith devotes a chapter to each of four major political relationships: geopolitics, polities, regimes, and institutions. Each of these is considered through three perspectives on human dimensions of the landscape: experience, perception, and imagination. Each chapter includes a single extended case study plus general remarks on theory and other cases.

There are some extremely interesting ideas within this book, and Adam T. Smith also provides some useful discussion of past landscape (and archaeological) theory. However, my big complaint is about the language the author uses throughout. While I agree that sometimes it is necessary to express complex ideas in a complex way, as a general rule the simpler the language, the better the work. It is almost always harder to write well using simple words and sentence structures, but surely being instantly intelligible makes this effort worthwhile?
I'm sure academics will find this a useful volume, but only the most persistent students will benefit from it.