In Hadrian's Wall: Creating Division, Matthew Symonds offers a compelling and often refreshing analysis, presented in a very digestible and cogent package that will appeal to both the enthusiastic lay reader and the serious student of the Roman frontier. Symonds's writing style is very readable, honed through years of professional archaeological editing and journalism and seeded with engaging turns of phrase. Buoyed by catchy quips and amusing subheadings, if the readers are akin to this reviewer, they will cruise through the book without any need for speed or motivation.

Hadrian's Wall consists of ten chapters arranged in chronological order and sandwiched by the introduction and conclusion. Each chapter is typically ten to twenty pages, with a notable exception of chapter 4. In the introduction, Symonds presents Hadrian's Wall as a topic and focus of study over the course of several centuries, outlining the origins and framing of the current state of knowledge and the sources of knowledge, noting the strengths and limits of both ancient texts and archaeological data. Chapters 2 and 3 provide brief foundations for the history and organization of Roman Britain the narrative leading up to the construction of Hadrian's Wall, respectively. Chapter 4 is the longest chapter, examining the construction of the Wall in some detail, but notably lighter (and more readable) than is typically the case. Chapters 5 and 6 take the reader through the later second to early fifth centuries, while chapters 7 to 9 broadly cover the Middle Ages, early modern centuries, and very recent history, respectively. The brief conclusion revisits the previous chapters, emphasizing the central theme of the book.

The strength of the work lies in the very effective conjoining of a chronological narrative structure with the thread of conflict and division sewn throughout each chapter. Announced by the book's subtitle “creating division,” this should not be a spoiler, but the consistency with which Symonds applies this notion of perceptions of conflict, resulting in the need for and use of the wall as a monument that effectively divides, provides a strong unity to the volume. This is particularly notable as academic debate centered on the purpose and function of the wall has traditionally pendulously shifted between one of military defense to one of bureaucratic control, depending on the time at which a given scholar is writing and the time they are writing about. In contrast, Symonds presents the shifting roles and perceptions of conflict across the monument's entire history, not only through the Roman centuries, but also in the post-Roman receptions and presentations of the wall.

A further strength of the book is that, despite the focus on a monumental frontier complex, Symonds frames the material as much socially as materially. Thus, construction of the wall, life at its many forts, even the very topography in which the monument runs over, are all related to past peoples’ experiences (often using modern analogies). While the material evidence, for example in the third century, can be rather equivocal regarding violence or conflict, the positioning of the data within a social context enhances Symonds's thesis. For example, a very brief description of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in chapter 1 as an analogy for framing the wall in a conflict setting brings an immediacy and more resonant situation for the reader.

As a paperback book, the cost is quite reasonable, and when the quality of content is factored, it is an undeniable bargain. The manuscript is clean, with a good table of contents and handy index that supports searching by name, place, term, and theme or topic. The formatting is consistent, and the text is supported by endnote referencing and a strong bibliography, both to a good academic standard. There are sixty-one illustrations throughout the book in greyscale, many credited to Symonds himself and others supplied by colleagues in the wall research community. Nearly all illustrations are of suitable size and quality for the reader, though a few would have benefited substantially from full-color reproduction, accepting that ultimately this decision lies with the publisher and not the author.

While the reader must accept that this monograph is not intended primarily for an academic audience, there are substantial rewards for researchers of the wall and Roman frontiers in the manner that Symonds describes and engages with particular research problems and interpretations of the evidence. Indeed, Symonds's commitment to regularly reference his text takes the reader to the appropriate original source or secondary literature in a very faithful fashion.

The most significant aspect of this book, however, is that it is the first monograph of a new phase of Hadrian's Wall studies, representative of newer generations of scholars who completed their doctoral studies informed by post-processual archaeology, and significantly engaging with the themes and perspectives found in border studies. Incorporating the fundamental facts and interpretations of past scholarship, Symonds presents a consistent interpretation of Hadrian's Wall as a monument of conflict, framed in terms more related to human interests and concerns than monumental or institutional structures.