Stonehenge: Making Space, Barbara Bender, Berg Publishers, 1998, ISBN 1 85973 908 3, paperback, 254 pp., £14.99.

In the last twenty-five years Stonehenge has progressed from being a symbol of the religious alternative provided by the modern Druids to a symbol of the alienation from the mainstream experienced by many who consider themselves pagans and political radicals, particularly in the environmental movement. The resulting violent confrontations, since the ‘Battle of the Beanfield’ in 1985, have been reported in the British press, but with little serious analysis. Bender brings together a wide range of evidence relating to the monument’s recent history, examining the completely different points of view held by people in varying political and academic positions and publishes the transcripts of conversations with some of the individuals who have been closely involved, including anthropologists and veterans of the Stonehenge free festival, which was an annual event from around 1975-1984.