J.'s monograph proceeds chronologically through the history of the Roman occupation of Britain while integrating a few chapters on important thematic elements to offer some perspective on both the timeframe of the occupation and aspects of colonisation that shaped contemporary and future life in Britain. This presentation of thematic information within the chronological framework is accomplished with varying degrees of success. As stated in the introduction, the volume is aimed at students and general readers, and designed to give an overview of the Roman period as well as to demonstrate that the colonisation of Britain was an unprofitable exercise with after-effects that are still being felt today.

The book is divided by time period, focusing on the historical narrative of the occupation. An introduction briefly outlines the Roman Empire and provincial administration, Roman military structure and available historical sources. J. then presents chronological accounts of contact between Rome and Britain, beginning with the pre-Roman Iron Age (Chapter 2), then the invasions of Julius Caesar and Claudius, the consolidation of the province under the Flavians (Chapters 3–7), Hadrianic and Antonine rule (Chapters 10–11), the Severans and third-century unrest (Chapters 12–13), and finally Constantine and the collapse of Roman authority on the island in 409 ce (Chapters 14–16). These chapters rely heavily on literary sources, going through them in detail, with a litany of names and dates associated with each period. Despite the stated goals of the introduction, however, the main arguments become lost in these chapters. J.'s point about the brutality of the conquest will come as no surprise to those familiar with how Rome conquered its other provinces; and the notion that the province was ‘unprofitable’, while it may ring true in light of modern views on the profitability of conquest, is nevertheless a modern imposition of transactional values that the Roman Empire is unlikely to have held towards its provinces. The evaluation of the Romanisation paradigm as useful in describing Romano-British interactions is certainly true, but this is not as debated now as it has been in the past. These are important issues to raise, but their treatment in the book seems somewhat lacking in depth.

The arguments are affected by organisational issues in the presentation of the content. The chronological approach makes sense in an introductory text, but the chapters focused on thematic elements spanning this overall chronological framework (Chapters 8, 9, 17, 18 and 19) do not quite mesh with the standard historical sequence. For example, the thematic Chapter 8, discussing the Vindolanda tablets and life in frontier garrisons, and Chapter 9, addressing the scholarly debate around ‘Romanization’, come between the chronological Chapters 7 and 10, covering the historical narratives of the Flavian and Hadrianic period, respectively. While this period is an appropriate place to discuss Vindolanda, as the most significant collections of tablets date to the late Flavian and early Trajanic periods, it interrupts the chronological flow. Up to this point, J. seemed primarily interested in recounting historical and textual narratives, and this detailed evaluation of one specific site and a discussion of the broader thematic concept of literacy in Roman Britain, while understandable, seems intrusive.

Alongside the question of organisational clarity, the later chapters of the book suffer from repetition of material. Chapters 17, 18 and 19, which cover urban life, rural life and religion respectively (significant topics in more recent archaeological work on Roman Britain), are placed after the final chapter dealing with chronology (Chapter 16), and yet return to subjects that have been discussed in previous chapters, repeating some of the subject matter in an achronological discussion. Several sites or artefacts mentioned in these chapters are also addressed in earlier parts of the book, creating a potentially confusing experience should the reader question why this additional context was not presented earlier. For example, Chapter 5 discusses the organisation of urban settlements in Roman Britain, mentioning the important civitas capitals of Britain and their role in provincial administration. Chapter 17 revisits the civitas centres, restating much of what was said earlier and even reproducing much of the contents of Table 5.1 in Table 17.1. These organisational issues become more apparent in the repeated cross-referencing of other parts of the volume found throughout the book, both to earlier or later in the same chapter and to previous or subsequent chapters. If readers wish to get the full story of a site or artefact, they must flip back and forth within the book to find all the appropriate information. Both of these organisational issues (changing the subject abruptly in the middle of a narrative and repeating information already presented) are ones that must be faced in works that attempt to integrate broader thematic discussions into a rigid chronological narrative, but they do not seem to have been fully addressed here.

An admirable inclusion is Chapter 20, which connects some of the thematic issues of the Roman occupation with the modern sociopolitical climate in Britain, incorporating ideas like Brexit and Scottish independence into the discussion of how Roman occupation influenced the life of the British Isles. This chapter contains perhaps the clearest endorsement of the idea of Romanisation, connecting the notions of cultural change in the Roman period with the effects that such contact had on the people of the island.

The book may disappoint those familiar with Roman Britain and looking for a holistic treatment of the history or archaeology of the province, but there are readers for whom it will be useful. Although the approach to the subject is somewhat basic for a college or university-level course, the book functions well as an introductory overview for readers who have no prior experience with Roman Britain specifically and an elementary acquaintance with the Roman Empire more generally. It presents a straightforward chronology of the Roman occupation of Britain as well as the implications of some of the historical events. The treatment of the important themes, though given in broad strokes rather than detailed discussions (the chapter on the Romanisation debate explicitly discusses the views of only Tacitus and F. Haverfield, out of the many works on the subject), is still sufficient to give readers an overview of the nature of scholarly debate on these subjects, with suggestions of where to pursue it further presented in the footnotes and the bibliography. The book also incorporates clear outlines at the start of each chapter detailing the structure of the chapter and where to find specific information, though these useful subheadings are not reproduced in the table of contents. Given its nature as an introductory text, the absence of any colour plates and reliance on websites like Wikimedia Commons and Flickr for the few black-and-white figures included is a questionable choice, as ongoing archaeological research in Britain has produced many significant artefacts and high-quality images. Acquiring permissions to reprint images can be difficult, but proper visuals are nevertheless an important part of an introductory book such as this one, and a subsequent edition of the volume might acquire more, better-quality representations.

The book's main shortcomings seem to stem from a desire to have it both ways: to explain the chronological narrative of the Roman presence in Britain in detail and also to address the overarching themes that attend Romano-British studies, such as Romanisation, cultural continuity and change, and the rationales behind Roman colonialism. Attempting to fit these themes, which develop over most of the occupation, into a structure that is rigidly chronological ultimately does not do them an appropriate amount of justice. A commitment to one approach or the other in more detail or a division of the volume into two parts would perhaps have resulted in a more cohesive presentation.