Download or read book The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt written by Toby Wilkinson and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 792 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Magisterial . . . [A] rich portrait of ancient Egypt’s complex evolution over the course of three millenniums.”—Los Angeles Times NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post • Publishers Weekly In this landmark volume, one of the world’s most renowned Egyptologists tells the epic story of this great civilization, from its birth as the first nation-state to its absorption into the Roman Empire. Drawing upon forty years of archaeological research, award-winning scholar Toby Wilkinson takes us inside a tribal society with a pre-monetary economy and decadent, divine kings who ruled with all-too-recognizable human emotions. Here are the legendary leaders: Akhenaten, the “heretic king,” who with his wife Nefertiti brought about a revolution with a bold new religion; Tutankhamun, whose dazzling tomb would remain hidden for three millennia; and eleven pharaohs called Ramesses, the last of whom presided over the militarism, lawlessness, and corruption that caused a political and societal decline. Filled with new information and unique interpretations, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt is a riveting and revelatory work of wild drama, bold spectacle, unforgettable characters, and sweeping history. “With a literary flair and a sense for a story well told, Mr. Wilkinson offers a highly readable, factually up-to-date account.”—The Wall Street Journal “[Wilkinson] writes with considerable verve. . . . [He] is nimble at conveying the sumptuous pageantry and cultural sophistication of pharaonic Egypt.”—The New York Times

Download or read book Arab Fall written by Eric Trager and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood win power so quickly after the dramatic "Arab Spring" uprising that ended President Hosni Mubarak's thirty-year reign in February 2011? And why did the Brotherhood fall from power even more quickly, culminating with the popular "rebellion" and military coup that toppled Egypt's first elected president, Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, in July 2013? In Arab Fall, Eric Trager examines the Brotherhood's decision making throughout this critical period, explaining its reasons for joining the 2011 uprising, running for a majority of the seats in the 2011-2012 parliamentary elections, and nominating a presidential candidate despite its initial promise not to do so. Based on extensive research in Egypt and interviews with dozens of Brotherhood leaders and cadres including Morsi, Trager argues that the very organizational characteristics that helped the Brotherhood win power also contributed to its rapid downfall. The Brotherhood's intensive process for recruiting members and its rigid nationwide command-chain meant that it possessed unparalleled mobilizing capabilities for winning the first post-Mubarak parliamentary and presidential elections. Yet the Brotherhood's hierarchical organizational culture, in which dissenters are banished and critics are viewed as enemies of Islam, bred exclusivism. This alienated many Egyptians, including many within Egypt's state institutions. The Brotherhood's insularity also prevented its leaders from recognizing how quickly the country was slipping from their grasp, leaving hundreds of thousands of Muslim Brothers entirely unprepared for the brutal crackdown that followed Morsi's overthrow. Trager concludes with an assessment of the current state of Egyptian politics and examines the Brotherhood's prospects for reemerging.

Download or read book The Story of Egypt written by Joann Fletcher and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-08-02 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the world's greatest civilization spans 4,000 years of history that have shaped the world. It is full of spectacular cities and epic stories—an evolving society rich in inventors, heroes, heroines, villains, artisans, and pioneers. Professor Joann Fletcher pulls together the complete story of Egypt, charting the rise and fall of the ancient Egyptians while putting their whole world into a context to which we can all relate.Fletcher uncovers some fascinating revelations: new evidence shows that women became pharaohs on at least ten occasions; and that the ancient Egyptians built the first Suez Canal and then circumnavigated Africa. From Ramses II's penchant for dying his grey hair to how we know that Montuhotep's chief wife bit her nails, Fletcher brings alive the history and people of ancient Egypt as nobody else can.

Download or read book Analyzing Collapse written by Miroslav Bárta and published by American University in Cairo Press. This book was released on 2019-08-27 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the long-term trends in the development of what was the first complex civilization in history, the Old Kingdom of Egypt (c. 2650–2200 BC), the period that saw the construction of eternal monuments such as Djoser’s Step Pyramid complex in Saqqara, the pyramids of the great Fourth Dynasty kings in Giza, and spectacular tombs of high officials throughout Egypt. The present study aims to show that the historical trajectory of the period was marked by specific processes that characterize most of the world’s civilizations: the role of the ruling elite, the growth of bureaucracy, the proliferation of interest groups, and adaptation to climate change, to name but a few—and the way that these processes held the germ of ultimate collapse. The case is made that the rise and fall of the Old Kingdom state is of relevance to the study of the anatomy of development of any complex civilization.

Download or read book 1177 B C written by Eric H. Cline and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-22 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold reassessment of what caused the Late Bronze Age collapse In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No more Trojans, Hittites, or Babylonians. The thriving economy and cultures of the late second millennium B.C., which had stretched from Greece to Egypt and Mesopotamia, suddenly ceased to exist, along with writing systems, technology, and monumental architecture. But the Sea Peoples alone could not have caused such widespread breakdown. How did it happen? In this major new account of the causes of this "First Dark Ages," Eric Cline tells the gripping story of how the end was brought about by multiple interconnected failures, ranging from invasion and revolt to earthquakes, drought, and the cutting of international trade routes. Bringing to life the vibrant multicultural world of these great civilizations, he draws a sweeping panorama of the empires and globalized peoples of the Late Bronze Age and shows that it was their very interdependence that hastened their dramatic collapse and ushered in a dark age that lasted centuries. A compelling combination of narrative and the latest scholarship, 1177 B.C. sheds new light on the complex ties that gave rise to, and ultimately destroyed, the flourishing civilizations of the Late Bronze Age—and that set the stage for the emergence of classical Greece.

Download or read book A World Beneath the Sands written by Toby Wilkinson and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2020-10-15 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'It is a story full of drama, with the Nile, the pyramids and the Valley of the Kings as backdrop. That A World Beneath the Sands is also a subtle and stimulating study of the paradoxes of 19th-century colonialism is a bonus indeed.' – Tom Holland, Guardian What could be more exciting, more exotic or more intrepid than digging in the sands of Egypt in the hope of discovering golden treasures from the age of the pharaohs? Our fascination with ancient Egypt goes back to the ancient Greeks. But the heyday of Egyptology was undoubtedly the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This golden age of scholarship and adventure is neatly book-ended by two epoch-making events: Champollion's decipherment of hieroglyphics in 1822 and the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon a hundred years later. In A World Beneath the Sands, the acclaimed Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson tells the riveting stories of the men and women whose obsession with Egypt's ancient civilisation drove them to uncover its secrets. Champollion, Carter and Carnarvon are here, but so too are their lesser-known contemporaries, such as the Prussian scholar Karl Richard Lepsius, the Frenchman Auguste Mariette and the British aristocrat Lucie Duff-Gordon. Their work – and those of others like them – helped to enrich and transform our understanding of the Nile Valley and its people, and left a lasting impression on Egypt, too. Travellers and treasure-hunters, ethnographers and epigraphers, antiquarians and archaeologists: whatever their motives, whatever their methods, all understood that in pursuing Egyptology they were part of a greater endeavour – to reveal a lost world, buried for centuries beneath the sands.

Download or read book The Egyptian written by Mika Waltari and published by Rare Treasure Editions. This book was released on 2021-11-05T00:00:00Z with total page 703 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in the 1940s and widely condemned as obscene, The Egyptian outsold every other American novel published that same year, and remains a classic; readers worldwide have testified to its life-changing power. It is a full-bodied re-creation of a largely forgotten era in the world’s history: an Egypt when pharaohs contended with the near-collapse of history’s greatest empire. This epic tale encompasses the whole of the then-known world, from Babylon to Crete, from Thebes to Jerusalem, while centering around one unforgettable figure: Sinuhe, a man of mysterious origins who rises from the depths of degradation to get close to the Pharoah...

Download or read book A History of Ancient Egypt Volume 2 written by John Romer and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 690 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Another solid work of history from an author and historian who truly grasps the mysteries of ancient Egypt." - Kirkus Reviews Drawing on a lifetime of research, John Romer chronicles the history of Ancient Egypt from the building of the Great Pyramid through the rise and fall of the Middle Kingdom: a peak of Pharaonic culture and the period when writing first flourished. Through extensive research over many decades of work, reveals how the grand narratives of 19th and 20th century Egyptologists have misled us by portraying a culture of cruel monarchs and chronic war. Instead, based in part on discoveries of the past two decades, this extraordinary account shows what we can really learn from the remaining architecture, objects, and writing: a history based on physical reality.

Download or read book Egyptomania written by Ronald H. Fritze and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2021-02-04 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Egyptomania takes us on a historical journey to unearth the Egypt of the imagination, a land of strange gods, mysterious magic, secret knowledge, monumental pyramids, enigmatic sphinxes, and immense wealth. Egypt has always exerted a powerful attraction on the Western mind, and an array of figures have been drawn to the idea of Egypt. Even the practical-minded Napoleon dreamed of Egyptian glory and helped open the antique land to explorers. Ronald H. Fritze goes beyond art and architecture to reveal Egyptomania’s impact on religion, philosophy, historical study, literature, travel, science, and popular culture. All those who remain captivated by the ongoing phenomenon of Egyptomania will revel in the mysteries uncovered in this book.

Download or read book 31 BC written by David Stuttard and published by British Museum Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 2 September 31 BC, two superpowers, Egypt and Rome, met head-on for the first and last time in history. The outcome was the Battle of Actium, which would change the course of history and lead directly to the foundation of the Roman Empire. In a compelling new chronicle, brought vividly to life with expressive anecdotes and moving eye-witness accounts, 31 BC explores the chain of events that culminated in the fall of Egypt. A sequel to the popular AD 410: the Year that Shook Rome, 31 BC reveals the tragic romance between Antony and Cleopatra, boldly characterising the central charismatic personalities of the time. Illustrated with evocative locations and iconic objects from the British Museum and elsewhere, 31 BC: Antony, Cleopatra and the Fall of Egypt is a dramatic story of a defining moment in history, retold with excitement and vigour from the Egyptian standpoint.

Download or read book The Struggle for Egypt written by Steven A. Cook and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-07 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent revolution in Egypt has shaken the Arab world to its roots. The most populous Arab country and the historical center of Arab intellectual life, Egypt is a lynchpin of the US's Middle East strategy, receiving more aid than any nation except Israel. This is not the first time that the world and has turned its gaze to Egypt, however. A half century ago, Egypt under Nasser became the putative leader of the Arab world and a beacon for all developing nations. Yet in the decades prior to the 2011 revolution, it was ruled over by a sclerotic regime plagued by nepotism and corruption. During that time, its economy declined into near shambles, a severely overpopulated Cairo fell into disrepair, and it produced scores of violent Islamic extremists such as Ayman al-Zawahiri and Mohammed Atta. In this new and updated paperback edition of The Struggle for Egypt, Steven Cook--a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations--explains how this parlous state of affairs came to be, why the revolution occurred, and where Egypt is headed now. A sweeping account of Egypt in the modern era, it incisively chronicles all of the nation's central historical episodes: the decline of British rule, the rise of Nasser and his quest to become a pan-Arab leader, Egypt's decision to make peace with Israel and ally with the United States, the assassination of Sadat, the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood, and--finally--the demonstrations that convulsed Tahrir Square and overthrew an entrenched regime. And for the paperback edition, Cook has updated the book to include coverage of the recent political events in Egypt, including the election of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi as President. Throughout Egypt's history, there has been an intense debate to define what Egypt is, what it stands for, and its relation to the world. Egyptians now have an opportunity to finally answer these questions. Doing so in a way that appeals to the vast majority of Egyptians, Cook notes, will be difficult but ultimately necessary if Egypt is to become an economically dynamic and politically vibrant society.

Download or read book Egypt written by Christina Riggs and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2017-04-15 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Roman villas to Hollywood films, ancient Egypt has been a source of fascination and inspiration in many other cultures. But why, exactly, has this been the case? In this book, Christina Riggs examines the history, art, and religion of ancient Egypt to illuminate why it has been so influential throughout the centuries. In doing so, she shows how the ancient past has always been used to serve contemporary purposes. Often characterized as a lost civilization that was discovered by adventurers and archeologists, Egypt has meant many things to many different people. Ancient Greek and Roman writers admired ancient Egyptian philosophy, and this admiration would influence ideas about Egypt in Renaissance Europe as well as the Arabic-speaking world. By the eighteenth century, secret societies like the Freemasons looked to ancient Egypt as a source of wisdom, but as modern Egypt became the focus of Western military strategy and economic exploitation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, its ancient remains came to be seen as exotic, primitive, or even dangerous, tangled in the politics of racial science and archaeology. The curse of the pharaohs or the seductiveness of Cleopatra were myths that took on new meanings in the colonial era, while ancient Egypt also inspired modernist, anti-colonial movements in the arts, such as in the Harlem Renaissance and Egyptian Pharaonism. Today, ancient Egypt—whether through actual relics or through cultural homage—can be found from museum galleries to tattoo parlors. Riggs helps us understand why this “lost civilization” continues to be a touchpoint for defining—and debating—who we are today.

Download or read book The Drowning King written by Emily Holleman and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2017-04-06 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's the dawning of a new era for Alexandria and Cleopatra and her younger brother, Ptolemy are established on the throne. Long overlooked by his father in favor of his beguiling sister, eleven-year-old Ptolemy is desperate to assert himself as a man and as a king. But he and his advisors are no match for Queen Cleopatra, who's quick to establish her primacy throughout the land, from Alexandria to Upper Egypt. When, a year later, Cleopatra alienates Rome's remaining legions and flees the palace, Ptolemy finally gets his first taste of power, though not without its complications: Cleopatra has joined forces with their sister Arsinoe in Egypt, and Ptolemy must prepare to meet their army head-on and prove his ruthlessness to Caesar. Despite mounting doubts about where her sister's loyalties lie, Arsinoe has remained faithful to her. But when news comes that Cleopatra has manipulated Caesar to regain the throne and embraced Rome's dominance, Arsinoe is torn between her warring siblings and sensing her own nascent hunger to lead rising within. Arsinoe must choose whether it will be her dear sister or brother she irrevocably betrays . . . and make a decision that will determine the fate of a kingdom, and all the future of history.

Download or read book Understanding Collapse written by Guy D. Middleton and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-06-26 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this lively survey, Guy D. Middleton critically examines our ideas about collapse - how we explain it and how we have constructed potentially misleading myths around collapses - showing how and why collapse of societies was a much more complex phenomenon than is often admitted.

Download or read book The Twilight of Ancient Egypt written by Karol Myśliwiec and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Karol Mysliwiec surveys a turbulent time in Ancient Egyptian culture and history -- the eight hundred years between the eleventh century B.C.E. and the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.E., after which Egypt became part of the Hellenistic world. It was a time when Libyans, Kushites, Persians, and Greeks ascended to the throne more frequently than did indigenous kings. The history of this phase of pharaonic Egypt, marked by rapid changes in rule, has been relatively neglected until now. Egypt had become increasingly involved in the affairs of its Near Eastern neighbors (Assyria, Babylon, and Persia) and of the Mediterranean world. These many cultures greatly enriched and influenced pharaonic traditions. At the same time, Egyptian civilization extended far beyond the borders of Egypt itself. One of the most important cultural products of this period is the Old Testament, called here "an inestimable source of information on daily life in pharaonic Egypt". Mysliwiec perceives in recent archaeological discoveries clear evidence that the First Millennium B.C.E. was witness to more than a slow, progressive dying out of the pharaonic past; new and creative elements profoundly altered the culture of Ancient Egypt. Originally published in Polish, The Twilight of Ancient Egypt appeared in 1998 in a German edition. The Cornell edition has been updated by the author and also contains previously unpublished photographs of recently discovered treasures.

Download or read book The Rise and Fall of Alexandria written by Justin Pollard and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-10-30 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A short history of nearly everything classical. The foundations of the modern world were laid in Alexandria of Egypt at the turn of the first millennium. In this compulsively readable narrative, Justin Pollard and Howard Reid bring one of history's most fascinating and prolific cities to life, creating a treasure trove of our intellectual and cultural origins. Famous for its lighthouse, its library-the greatest in antiquity-and its fertile intellectual and spiritual life--it was here that Christianity and Islam came to prominence as world religions--Alexandria now takes its rightful place alongside Greece and Rome as a titan of the ancient world. Sparkling with fresh insights on science, philosophy, culture, and invention, this is an irresistible, eye- opening delight.

Download or read book A History of Egypt written by Jason Thompson and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2011-03-02 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In A History of Egypt, Jason Thompson has written the first one-volume work to encompass all 5,000 years of Egyptian history, highlighting the surprisingly strong connections between the ancient land of the Pharaohs and the modern-day Arab nation. No country's past can match Egypt's in antiquity, richness, and variety. However, it is rarely presented as a comprehensive panorama because scholars tend to divide it into distinct eras—prehistoric, pharaonic, Greco-Roman, Coptic, medieval Islamic, Ottoman, and modern—that are not often studied in relation to one another. In this daringly ambitious project, drawing on the most current scholarship as well as his own research, Thompson makes the case that few if any other countries have as many threads of continuity running through their entire historical experience. With its unprecedented scope and lively and readable style, A History of Egypt offers students, travelers, and general readers alike an engaging narrative of the extraordinarily long course of human history by the Nile.