"In visiting the principal Etruscan towns [Lawrence] not only reconstructed their buildings and their life against the background of today, but he found opportunity to contrast them with the civilization of the Romans who conquered them. It is not surprising that the Etruscans, with their pagan freedom and rugged imagination, appealed to him more than the stern and methodical Romans; and that he found in their ways of life a lesson for today"--from back cover.