Grab Your Edition The Rise And Fall Of Ancient Egypt Authored By Toby Wilkinson Published As Digital Edition
darn ancient Egyptians have always confused me to no end, When did they first put it all together Why are there so many different eras of kingdoms When was the last hieroglyphic written I just needed one massive volume to explain it all to me, as Wikipedia was unable to keep up with my constant viewing.
After reading this book, all the other books on Egypt now make sense and I can confidently discuss the various pharaohs and their times.
To think that we are still fascinated with a kingdom from thousands of years ago says much for the accomplishments of the early kings and the formalized structure they put into place.
Using a combination of religion and the flooding of the Nile uphold order by defeating chaos, they managed to create a civilization that wowed even the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans.
The tombs, the mummies, the temples, the rituals, the writing, the everything still fascinates us to this day, And there are still hidden burial sites not yet found, which is simply amazing,
This book is broken up chronologically, which makes it easy to follow the dynasties and the viziers/priests, There is a full breakdown of each Pharaoh at the beginning and the maps on the endpieces are handy, As I was nearing the end of the book, I also started viewing the THE NILE TV travelogue, which takes the viewer on a lovely boat ride through the river that made it all happen.
Perfect accompaniment.
This is the type of history book I love, one which makes it easy to understand for the amateur who wants to learn more.
Book Season Summer when the Nile flooded Like a lot of people, ancient Egypt has always had a fascination for me, and being a history buff, I've picked up a decent amount of knowledge on the subject over the years.
But, I've never had any one great source for what is quite a lot of history, and Toby Wilkinson's book serves the purpose very well.
One advantage of it is that instead of just being Dynastic Egypt, the text runs all the way from what we know of presedentary societies in the area allnew to me, to the death of Cleopatra, and the end of Egypt as any sort of independent entity until modern times.
Coverage naturally varies depending on how much is known, with the usual suspects of the early I Dynasty and the XVIII Dynasty getting a lot of attention.
Normally, I don't see much about the period between the XIX Dynasty and the Ptolemaic period, so the expanded scope was appreciated.
The book is clear, concise, and wellwritten, and as an introductory overview stays well away from any sort of controversies, or discussion of trends of thought in Egyptology, even when those bear directly on text.
The greatest example of this was having to look up Ptolemy VII separately to find out that he may not have reigned/existed at all, and if he did it was a very short while say a month but the book talks about Ptolemy VI and Ptolemy VIII in the same paragraph, and doesn't think to note the reason why there's a missing number.
There is a stated attempt to point
out forms of repression and absolutism inherent in the governmental system, but it's not all that well explored, and since its what we have records of the book tends to gloss over parts of that anyway in its narration of the doings of high officials and armies.
In addition to the standard bibliography, there's a fairly extensive collection of color photographs a number of blackandwhite ones are scattered throughout at the end of the Kindle book.
They aren't bad on a smaller screen, and are big enough to view comfortably on my desktop monitor, There's also a lot of notes for further reading on specific subjects unfortunately, at least in the Kindle version the names of books are not italicized, making them harder to pick out of the text, and the sources of articles mentioned are not given.
What actually makes me unhappy, is that the reading is almost all for particular subjects, instead of anything that just breaks down to the next level of overview, i.
e. , suggestions for the Old Kingdom as a whole,
There's some talk about the various trade routes around the Nile, which help explain the importance of certain areas, and at least mention of the fact that the Nile Delta was more important that it seems, simply because it's much harder to do archaeology there.
But, while lacking a means of easy access to the next level of detail, there is plenty here, and it is overall a wellput together look at aroundyears of history.
It's very well written with a superb narrative style and from an academic perspective its predominantly spot on, It tends to gloss over some of the debates which are still ongoing but only to maintain a cohesive narrative, A wonderful history of the Ancient Egyptian empire from it's founding with the first King Narmer inB, C to the death of Cleopatra and the last days of Ptolemaic Egypt, Though no fault of his own, Wilkinson's book does start out a little slow, Remnants of the Early Dynastic Period are lacking in narrative details,so Wilkinson is forced to merely provide a high level overview of the rulers, their construction projects and their religious beliefs.
As primary sources become more available, however, Wilkinson is able to construct a more detailed and interesting narrative, Beginning with theth dynasty, 'The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt' really takes off, Be patient with the first hundred pages or so and this one starts paying dividends quickly, An enjoyable and through romp through the entire history of ancient Egypt, and I could not help but pause at several points along the way to think about the strong continuity shown in this history between ancient and modern events.
The author himself marvels at it from time to time, using the famous French phrase "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" The more things change the more they stay the same to describe his own feelings.
Given current events in Egypt, I found much in this long but wellwritten history particularly fascinating, and I wonder if, in the future, another historian will call the modern Egyptian efforts to throw off their recent forms of governance another "Intermediate Period" in the long, deep, and fertile history of that civilization.
After reading this book, I am truly impressed by just how Arab the country has become since its long ago pharaonic days.
I wonder if this Arab overlay over their native culture is truly unshakable, or if, like the Christian overlay they once had, they will find themselves shaking it off in their next dynasty, and reverting to something more in line with their own place in the modern world and perhaps, with their own underlying ancient and robust culture.
If history is any guide, then the next stable government to arise and restore order in Egypt will be headed by another strong dictator who will arise from their military but have the backing of their religious leaders, and will further be backed either openly or secretly by a powerful foreign country or coalition whose gain will be to exploit Egypt for their own benefit and to the continued impoverishment and enslavement of most ordinary Egyptians.
The Egyptians will regain a lawandorder society, but at what cost
Whether modern Egypt can achieve prosperity free of being robbed by powerful foreigners is possible for this ancient land at the current time is unlikely there are too many great powers in play looking greedily at the remaining resources in that part of the world.
And Egypt is not strong enough or rich enough to play at that level right now, other than as a pawn, Some powers are just rising to the top like ancient China, rising to predominance once again, while some are struggling to hang on like the US and its "western" allies and will see Egypt as a valuable "counter" in the international game of King of the Hill that is nearly as ancient as civilization itself.
Egypt has been exploited by foreign powers for so long now, I wonder if it is even possible for their people to actually reclaim some measure of their ancient independence and predominance on the world stage or are they so used to overt or covert foreign dominance as a precursor of having a wellordered society that they cannot now summon any image of life as a truly free people and keep order at the same time.
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