Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, November 2014: Apologies to Indiana Jones, but—at least on the surface—archeology isn’t the sexiest of disciplines. There’s all that backbreaking field work, low pay, and a serious demand for patience. But as you read Marilyn Johnson’s Lives in Ruins: Archeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble you start to form a different picture. What is most fascinating about archeology is the stories—stories of lives dedicated to unearthing the past, and the stories that are literally being unearthed from the past. Johnson throws herself into her subject, taking a field class, following various archeologists into the field (and underwater), and exploring archeology’s role in the greater culture. In writing that is funny, entertaining, and enriching, she illustrates why archeologists derive such a thrill from what they do—and why we probably should as well. – Chris Schluep