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Famous today for its temples, palaces, monuments, and museum, Tikal governed a large area in the rain forest of northern Guatemala. Maya hieroglyphic texts can now be read, revealing rulers' names, their birth, accession, and death dates, affirmations of family lineages, political relationships, ceremonies, and wars won and lost. Using archaeological evidence, historians can construct at least plausible interpretations of the ambitions of individual rulers, motivations of groups, strategies of kinship/marriage alliances, and results of warfare--the familiar kind of narrative history written about city-states and kingdoms of the Mediterranean, Europe, and Asia. Pre-Columbian art historian and illustrator Montgomery writes such a history, interpreting the dynastic history of Tikal's rulers and their relations with other Maya capitals and distant non-Maya states over a span of more than 700 years from the second century CE. The drawings, maps, and poorly reproduced gray photos are helpful, though limited compared with most of Montgomery's sources (e.g., S. Martin and N. Grube, Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens, 2000; P. Harrison, The Lords of Tikal, 1999). No guides to pronunciation or the revised spelling of Maya words; diacritical marks used inconsistently in both Spanish and Maya; well-selected reference lists. All levels. K. A. Dixon emeritus, California State University, Long Beach