The Story of Egypt: The Civilization That Shaped the World Paperback – Import, 11 March 2020

Very Interesting . Go for it

After reading some dozen or more books about Ancient Egypt, I think this book from Dr. Joann Fletcher is one of the most comprehensive and fun to be read (The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt by Dr. Toby Wilkinson is also very good btw). In less than 500 pages, Dr Fletcher presents an exciting history of a civilization stretching for 3500 years together with the most up to date picture told by Archaeology. It's quite an achievement. Full of citations and complemented by a bibliography for those wanting to learn more.

Great read.

Un libro excelente, Joann Fletcher es una egiptologa renombrada y relata a lo largo del libro la historia COMPLETA de Egipto, sin embargo es un libro ameno a manera de narrativa. No costará trabajo a principiantes que gusten adentrarse de la historia de Egipto por primera vez y los más estudiosos de la historia pienso que también lo apreciaran. Un libro muy completo lleno de una historia épica.

This book is one of the best I've read on this subject. Joann Fletcher has kept it intelligent and easy to read. Joann doesn't ever talk down to her readers. If you want to learn about Egypt, read this book. You won't regret it.

My personal expectations were perhaps too high. I rated this book three stars because there is a lot of good writing and compelling information, but it lacks some important - fundamental I daresay - aspects of ancient Egypt culture.The positive points include a rich description of the lives of almost all the kings and pharaoh of Egypt, with a final list of names at the end of the books that help to locate historically each monarch and each dynasty. Fletcher highlights the importance of women and of religious aspects in the lives of Egyptians. Detailed information about tombs, locations, arrangements, are also reported. Overall, the story follows the line of the kings and queens, with the addition of the most important military personnel and courtiers. The pictures, divided in two sets amidst the book, help to enrich the tale.The negatives: too detailed information about tombs and funerary arrangements of each king, especially in the first part of the book, are interesting at the beginning, but in the long run they become boring. The scheme followed seems to be "new king > name, wives, sons & daughter > building of his tomb > full description of his tomb (where, when, why, who build it, etc.> new king", with very little additional information about the country. This is, in my humble opinion as reader, the weakest part of the opera. Egypt's hundreds of pharaohs list started to seem a boring sequence of names with nothing worth besides. In addition, mummification and hieroglyphs are two characteristic aspects of Egypt, but no serious attempt at describing them has been made. I did not want to read a manual of mummification, but I found only sparse information about the practice have been reported and I expected more. Mummification rises suddenly in the tale without the right in-depth required. The same is true for the writing: no one wants a dictionary or a sequence of symbols with the related meaning, but in a book such as this, one must supply more about the subject.In conclusion, I liked it, because is an attempt to report more than 3 thousand years of glorious history. The book is updated, and generally well written and interesting. It lacks a conclusion to say the truth: the tale stops suddenly with the death of Kleopatra. Given the long travel (again, 3 thousand years) and the personal link of the author with Egypt, I expected final considerations of a certain importance. The most interesting parts are those in which Fletcher leaves the deeds of everyday kings and queens to look at the grander picture, that of the Ancient World of which Egypt was part. So, the diplomatic relationships with Hittites, Greece, Babylonia, Persia, Rome, Nubia, Lybia etc., the economic and financial aspect of the reign, the wars of conquest, the guiding figure of the some of the greatest Pharaohs, the contrasts with the Amen clergy. When the look is widened, the book breaths real life, become dynamic, gives the sense of real history and is really interesting. To help the reader two detailed maps at the beginning of the book and a satisfying Index at the end of it.