Rude Stone Monuments in All Countries is James Fergusson’s wide-ranging survey of megalithic structures, the dolmens, stone circles, and standing stones found across the world. Drawing on travel accounts and his own architectural learning, Fergusson catalogues monuments from Stonehenge and Carnac to those of India and the Near East, attempting to determine their age and purpose.
Fergusson controversially argued for relatively late dates and historical rather than prehistoric origins, conclusions that later research overturned. The book nonetheless gathered an impressive body of evidence and stimulated debate about these enigmatic structures. Read with awareness of its dated theories, it remains an interesting document of nineteenth-century thinking about the world’s most ancient monuments and the long fascination they have inspired.