Dora Jane Hamblin (1920–1993)

Dora Jane Hamblin is a journalist who travels to archeology sites and digs telling the stories of the past, the present and those who are trying to connect the two through science.

This book was a hidden treasure on my to-be-read shelves for years. Always getting passed over because I feared it would be a dry read or trite. It was neither, and quite engaging! Even though written in the 1970s, I read along with breathless anticipation as the archeologists dug, with despair as treasure seekers show more ruined the stories that otherwise may have been found, and with anticipation as new methods and techniques were found to care for the antiquities and give better understanding of the peoples who have gone before. Google helped to bring me up to date on the hoaxes mentioned, as well as the progress of various digs. There are black and white photographs throughout.

This is a book written for the general public, possibly to ignite the curiosity of young adults. Professionals will not be as excited as I was to read this. I will be looking for her other books because I enjoy traveling with her. show less

Entertaining account of what it was like to work at LIFE magazine during its heyday in the 1940s and 1950s (and during its final decline in the early 1970s), replete with crazed stories of journalistic overkill and excess that only could be inspired by Henry Luce. Stuff that will never be seen again, which might be too bad.

This work is a study of human urbanizationWe start with "the oldest city plan known", a 1500 B.C. tablet showing the sights of Nippur, which arose on the Euphrates. The invention of the city fills human needs, in their diversity. [10] Our words for "city" and "civilization" derive from the same roots, civis, keitai.

Since WWII, of course, "almost everything assumed about the 'dawn of civilization' and the origin of cities has either been turned upside down or rendered hopelessly out of date". show more [10] show less

Dora Jane Hamblin's memoir of her quarter century there as a fact-checker, reporter, and staff writer. I enjoyed it.