Customer Reviews

Napoleon to Nasser: The Story of Modern Egypt

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I am an Egyptian who has spent considerable time studying his country's modern history (post Mohamed Ali) . This is the best book I have ever read on the subject : erudite, unpretentious and enormously entertaining. The author, an Englishman, spent several years in Egypt. His "story" (he did not say "history")is lucid and warm. Very unusual that an Englishman should write so lovingly of the Egyptian people. His analysis of the ambiguousness of Anglo-French relations as they relate to the middle East is very enlightening. That of American blunders premonitory (The book was written in 1972). I wish Raymond Flower would read my own (modest) book on the subject : "Pyramids Road". American University in Cairo Press. 2004.

With recent events in Egypt, I felt a need to fill in some gaps in my education. This book filled that need well. It is well written and, to the general reader, seems a balanced and thorough history of Egypt from roughly 1800 to 1970. Unfortunately, it is marred by one of the worst editing jobs I have ever seen in a book. A few examples from among many instances: Richard III is called "Richard Ill" (p.49); Osman Ricki's last name is spelled both as "Ricki" and "Ricky" on the same page (p. 91); "For the next twenty, seven years ...." (p.123); America's naval base in Hawaii is called "Pearl harbor" (p.135). I can understand one or two typos creeping into a book but the number in this work is absurd --- the publisher, "1stBooks," should be ashamed of their editing or typesetting.