The American Frontier ¦ The Roman Empire

This new series confines itself to providing a concise and readable introduction to a topic - sketching in the geographical and historical background and giving a clear account of the significant events and chief protagonists.

Not a main course then, but a starter. Nevertheless there's enough here to whet the appetite, served up in an attractive format with illustrations on almost every page, whilst 'evidence boxes' containing extracts from original source material provide tempting fare. The only things likely to cause mild indigestion are the irritating and superfluous questions directed at the reader.

Just as the Romans felt they brought peace and civilization to the lands they conquered, many Americans felt the same about the 'taming' of the West. Those who saw their homeland and way of life irrevocably changed, however, whether defeated Briton or Native American, expressed a different point of view.

Changing attitudes to the treatment of the Native Americans (especially by the media) and the fact that many heroic reputations, such as Wild Bill Hickok's, do not stand up to close scrutiny, provide young readers with one of their most valuable insights into the past - it is constantly being reinterpreted.