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The Rise And Fall Of Ancient Egypt: The History Of A Civilisation From 3000 BC To Cleopatra (2010)

by Toby A.H. Wilkinson(Favorite Author)

4.04 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0747599491 (ISBN13: 9780747599494)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

review 1: An adequate but undistinguished history of Ancient Egypt. I felt the author tried to cover too much ground (the book could have ended at the fall of the New Kingdom without suffering much) without going into sufficient depth. I understand parts of the historical record are pretty sketchy, particularly for the earliest dynasties, but the author simply glosses over many details which would have added to the value of the work. There was too much emphasis on monument-building at the expense of trade networks, diplomacy, law and the rest of the nitty-gritty of a state's history that makes a long, dry history book crunchy and worthwhile.There are also a number of snarky or sarcastic asides which felt out of place in a book of this sort.
review 2: A concise look at a ... morelarge period of ancient history, Toby Wilkinson's The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt does the nearly unthinkable: distills over 2000 years of Egyptian history into a single, highly readable volume. This is a remarkable achievement, and not just because of the total number of years covered. Ancient Egypt had several wild changes of fortune, ranging from the early years under kings like Djoser and Khufu, to years of imperial power under Ramesses to subject rule under the Ptolemaic dynasty. Here, Wilkinson is able to lucidly go from one age to another, carefully showing how and why things changed, be it repressive taxation, the influence of the army or priesthood or foreign invasion.Wilkinson's specialty is the early years of Egypt and in the first half of the book, his scholarship shines. He spends a lot of time on the early kingdoms, detailing the construction of the pyramids, the growth of Egypt's writing and religions and the reign of kings. There's a ton of information here on the first half of the Egyptian dynasties. But as Wilkinson moves along in Egyptian history, the pace picks up and less time is spent on each dynasty. His coverage of people like Thutmose III doesn't seem as in-depth as, say, Khufu. By the final couple of chapters, he covers centuries in a matter of pages. Events like the war against the Sea Peoples or the Nubian Dynasty almost feel glossed over - although it should be noted that Wilkinson doesn't have a ton of information to work with, thanks to fragmentary evidence.Still, it's an interesting read that never feels especially bogged down in details and goes out of it's way to provide visual evidence: besides a bunch of colour photographs, black-and-white images are interspersed throughout. And it's supplemented by extensive notes and a bibliography that's dozens of pages long. If you're looking for a history of Ancient Egypt, I don't think you can go wrong with this. less

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