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Egypt: A Short History Hardcover – September 27, 2010
This is a sweeping, colorful, and concise narrative history of Egypt from the beginning of human settlement in the Nile River valley 5000 years ago to the present day. Accessible, authoritative, and richly illustrated, this is an ideal introduction and guide to Egypt's long, brilliant, and complex history for general readers, tourists, and anyone else who wants a better understanding of this vibrant and fascinating country, one that has played a central role in world history for millennia--and that continues to do so today.
Respected historian Robert Tignor, who has lived in Egypt at different times over the course of five decades, covers all the major eras of the country's ancient, modern, and recent history. A cradle of civilization, ancient Egypt developed a unique and influential culture that featured a centralized monarchy, sophisticated art and technology, and monumental architecture in the form of pyramids and temples. But the great age of the pharaohs is just the beginning of the story and Egypt: A Short History also gives a rich account of the tumultuous history that followed--from Greek and Roman conquests, the rise of Christianity, Arab-Muslim triumph, and Egypt's incorporation into powerful Islamic empires to Napoleon's 1798 invasion, the country's absorption into the British Empire, and modern, postcolonial Egypt under Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak.
This book provides an indispensable key to Egypt in all its layers--ancient and modern, Greek and Roman, and Christian and Islamic.
- Print length384 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPrinceton University Press
- Publication dateSeptember 27, 2010
- Dimensions6.75 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
- ISBN-100691147639
- ISBN-13978-0691147635
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"Robert L. Tignor's ambitious Egypt: A Short History stretches from the Predynastic age to the present, tying the various periods together in a continuous 5,000-year narrative to create a lengthy history told in a short book. . . . Tignor writes with an easy, assured style, and his history becomes more focused and more authoritative as it progresses. He tells us it was conceived as an alternative guidebook for discerning tourists wishing to learn about more than just pyramids and pharaohs: as such--as an enjoyable book written by someone who clearly knows and loves Egypt and the Egyptians--it serves its purpose very well." ― Financial Times
"[O]ne could not write a better account of Egypt's history--a gift from a master historian at the conclusion of his career."---Henry E. Chambers, Middle East Journal
"A brief look at Egypt's history can help us both understand the making of Egypt and the reasons behind what has already been dubbed Egypt's unfinished revolution."---Lisa Kaaki, Arab News
Review
"This is a masterpiece. In simple and accessible prose, Robert Tignor builds on his long and deep familiarity with Egyptian history, politics, and economy. The reader comes away with an understanding of what propels Egyptian history over the ages, and an appreciation of the key questions that beleaguer modern Egypt. This book will be of enormous value for general readers, students, and tourists."―Khaled Fahmy, New York University
"It's rare to get the entire history of Egypt between the covers of one book, but that is what this book does, providing a wonderful and thoroughly enjoyable sweep through Egyptian history. Robert Tignor is a great historian and this marvelous book displays his tremendous skill, experience, and knowledge."―J. G. Manning, Yale University
From the Inside Flap
"From Hyksos chariots to Egypt's latest venture in the desert, Egypt: A Short History is vintage Robert Tignor: concise, straightforward, and comprehensive. He manages to introduce primers on the sects of Islam, the trajectory of the Ottoman Empire, and other subjects ranging well beyond Egypt. And he gives fair warning: if you want to be mummified, your brain will be drawn out through your nose."--John Waterbury, American University of Beirut
"This is a masterpiece. In simple and accessible prose, Robert Tignor builds on his long and deep familiarity with Egyptian history, politics, and economy. The reader comes away with an understanding of what propels Egyptian history over the ages, and an appreciation of the key questions that beleaguer modern Egypt. This book will be of enormous value for general readers, students, and tourists."--Khaled Fahmy, New York University
"It's rare to get the entire history of Egypt between the covers of one book, but that is what this book does, providing a wonderful and thoroughly enjoyable sweep through Egyptian history. Robert Tignor is a great historian and this marvelous book displays his tremendous skill, experience, and knowledge."--J. G. Manning, Yale University
From the Back Cover
"From Hyksos chariots to Egypt's latest venture in the desert, Egypt: A Short History is vintage Robert Tignor: concise, straightforward, and comprehensive. He manages to introduce primers on the sects of Islam, the trajectory of the Ottoman Empire, and other subjects ranging well beyond Egypt. And he gives fair warning: if you want to be mummified, your brain will be drawn out through your nose."--John Waterbury, American University of Beirut
"This is a masterpiece. In simple and accessible prose, Robert Tignor builds on his long and deep familiarity with Egyptian history, politics, and economy. The reader comes away with an understanding of what propels Egyptian history over the ages, and an appreciation of the key questions that beleaguer modern Egypt. This book will be of enormous value for general readers, students, and tourists."--Khaled Fahmy, New York University
"It's rare to get the entire history of Egypt between the covers of one book, but that is what this book does, providing a wonderful and thoroughly enjoyable sweep through Egyptian history. Robert Tignor is a great historian and this marvelous book displays his tremendous skill, experience, and knowledge."--J. G. Manning, Yale University
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Product details
- Publisher : Princeton University Press (September 27, 2010)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 384 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0691147639
- ISBN-13 : 978-0691147635
- Item Weight : 1.56 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.75 x 1.25 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,572,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,121 in Egyptian History (Books)
- #2,288 in Ancient Egyptians History
- #3,611 in General Travel Reference
- Customer Reviews:
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The book devotes relatively little time to ancient Egypt. The portion of Egypt's history from Muhammad through the 18th century is interesting. Every hundred or few hundred years, there was a new invasion and a new Muslim ruler. The sections discussing Egypt's relationships with France and Britain, and the history of tension between European ideas and Islam, are also interesting.
This history ends in 2011, about the time of the Arab Spring. Now, in 2019, we can see that the idea of democracy taking root in Egypt remains ephemeral.
Tignor doesn't mention forensics, either. Keith W. Crawford wrote of researchers Brauer (1990), Coon (1965), Strouhal (1971), Nutter (1958) to name a few, whose studies indicate the presence of populations with Broad African (negroid) traits throughout the history of ancient Egypt, from predynastic times to the Archaic/Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom rulers. Iconography- statues and other representations -corroborate those studies. Cheikh Anta Diop, who devised a method for quantifying the melanin content of the epidermis from dynastic Egyptian mummies, demonstrated the melanin content from the mummies was comparable to the quantity in the skin of present day tropical African populations.
Much that's been written about the "four races of man" paintings in the tombs of Seti I and Ramses III is confusing. And, Tignor adds to that confusion in his book. However, Charles A. Grantham shines light on the matter in BATTLE FOR KEMET. Here, Grantham writes of how he gained access to the tombs and made photographs of "the four races of man" painting. Grantham tells of an exchange he had with Frank Yurco, co-worker at the Field Museum in Chicago, in which he and Yurco reach a consensus that the paintings show both ancient Egyptians and Kushites depicted as black and almost identically dressed.
Lastly, Tignor asked which present-day people are similar to the ancient Egyptians. Historian Lerone Bennett wrote: "the ancient Egyptians..were a mixed race which presented the same physical types of color ranges as American blacks-a people, in short, who would have been forced in the forties to sit on the back seats of the buses in Mississippi. `If the Egyptians and the majority tribes of Northern Africa were not Negroes,' Carter Woodson said, `then, there are no Negroes in the United States.'
"Egypt" is one of the odder histories I have read, addressed to people who want to travel to Egypt, which is a lot of people: Tourism makes up 10% of Egypt's national income (not counting the giant subsidies American taxpayers provide). The assumption is that they might want to know something about the place, but not too much.
The early chapters are a mishmash of a history that, I suppose, most people know at least a little about; that Egypt is the "gift of the Nile, that Pharaoh Ramses II had a big ego and so on. Tignor understates the technological contributions of the ancient Egyptians, mentioning mathematics and a primitive start toward alphabetic writing, but completely ignoring the material contributions. It is hard to imagine modern life without glass, for example.
He also appears to swallow whole the Old Testament stories about Egypt, although archaeology has found no trace of ancient Israelites in the most archaeology-friendly place on earth.
Tignor is an economic historian of modern Egypt, and as the history reaches the area of his lifetime study -- which happens also to be the period where (I conceive) even educated people tend not to know as much as they do about the more exciting era of pyramids, messiahs (even if imaginary) and tombs full of gold -- it becomes more trenchant.
This is also the part of the book where he inserts a bit of travelogue, handy hints for tourists who do go to Egypt.
However, he seems unconscious that the second half of "Egypt" contradicts a major theme of the first part, that, "It is virtually impossible for conquerors to obliterate the culture of the local population." The Muslims did a pretty good job of it.
Charles Singer, the pioneer historian of technology, emphasized how much invention came from Egypt; and Alexandria under the Graecized pharaohs continued the reputation for inquiry that had made Egypt a byword for knowledge in the classical world. No inventions have come out of Egypt since the Arabs took over, and it was almost the last place in the world to get a printing press. (Tignor sometimes elides these things; he remarks approvingly about the Cairene intellectual climate of the late 18th century, talking about "book discussion groups," not mentioning that the books were all manuscript.)
Egypt was, indeed, the intellectual cynosure of the Arab (and to some extent the Turkish Ottoman) world, but compared with the rest of the world, that isn't saying much.
As a person who lived for years in Cairo, Tignor shows great sympathy for the desire of the Egyptians to regain control of their country, not that this has been of much practical value to them. He correctly notes that one tradition going back the full five millenia continues strong: despotic (he uses the milder term authoritarian) rule.
The evident desire of Mubarak to begin a new dynasty makes it difficult to think of Egypt as anything but a failed state in the making. If you are of a mind to visit, it might be a good idea not to put it off.
NOTE: The Amazon star rating system can be problematic, and it is with "Egypt." I have given it three stars, which I think it deserves for anyone picking it up and expecting a short history of Egypt. But if considered as the curious sort of history the author says he intends -- written for a narrowly focused audience -- it could rate four stars.






