Right now I'm slogging my way through A History of Ancient Egypt by Nicholas Grimal. It's rambling and spontaneous- he goes from anthropology to linguistics to obscure religious theories in the space of a few pages- and I struggle to keep my eyes open, much less contextualize anything. Is this how it's supposed to be? I'm not even trying to become an expert on Ancient Egypt, but I can't find another actual history I haven't read (or is about archaeology instead of history). And I still barely know anything. I've looked in bibliographies and online sources.
Is reading history difficult?
- Thread starter Mouthwash
- Start date
Have you tried textbooks? Or some of the classical authors? Penguin books is a good publisher to check out for those. I don't recall offhand if they have much about Egypt, other than their historical atlas, though.
I read one textbook: Egypt and the Egyptians. In general, though, textbooks don't really teach history. History books do.
sophie
Break My Heart
Textbooks are history books.
Not of the kind I need. They can be a supplement, sure, but not a replacement.
sophie
Break My Heart
I'm not entirely sure you know what you're looking for.
Yes, I have indeed. But I've decided I want to be educated. In history in particular.
What parts of Egyptian history do you want to know about? Events? What daily life was like? How the pyramids were built? Any particular time frame?
Wrymouth3
Emperor
1. The part of Prince of Egypt where they go chariot racing.
2. Ramses II, Djoser, Tut, Nefertiti, Akhenaton and being conquered by Greeks (That's actually all people care about Ancient Egypt anyways.
3. I assumed like anything pre 1991, it sucked.
4. Aliens or Jews, possibly both since they are the same thing.
5. People don't actually know anything about individual kingdoms, so they say "Ancient Egypt."
Mainly political history.
Ajidica
High Quality Person
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In that case you are pretty screwed, as like with many ancient cultures that weren't great about writing things down, our knowledge is frequently limited to "this king did a great job, ruled justly, and made the wolves happier in enemy lands".
Wrymouth3
Emperor
While it's true that some ancient polities did not keep good records (Mesoamerican and Ancient Asian), I'm sure we have very good records kept by places such as Ancient Rome, the Greek city states, Arabic and Jewish sources. I mean we could sit here for 3 years talking about what Didius Julianus did, but we also could spend 10 years talking about garum and 100 years talking about the Cloaca Maxima.
Ancient Egypt was a highly literate culture. The hieroglyphs weren't just pretty decorations. They were records. They recounted millennia of history, literature, accounting, texts made for teaching purposes, and so much more. The problem is that most of this didn't survive the incessant wars, the politically-motivated purges (as in one pharaoh deciding to erase all records of an enemy's existence), and eventually the wanton destruction caused by religious zealots and arrogant European explorers, and let's not forget the damage caused by tomb robbers.
@Mouthwash: My interest in Egyptian history came about in a weird kind of way. For a very long time all I knew was that there was once a queen named Cleopatra, and there was a pharaoh named Rameses, and my family watched The Ten Commandments every year on TV on Easter Sunday. But many years later, I went to the theatre and saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. That got me interested in reading more about the story of Joseph and his brothers, so I read the relevant chapters in Genesis. Then I started wondering how it all fit into real history. I started reading history books, consulted historical atlases, and yes - I read historical fiction. That inspired me to read more about some other interesting aspects of ancient Egyptian history. So now I know a lot more. And I'm still learning.
I don't know what historical fiction you've read, but I recommend Pauline Gedge's novels. They're interesting stories, and well-researched. There are also several novels in the Children of the Lion series, by Peter Danielson that deal with events in Egypt. Danielson takes creative liberties with timelines, but they're still good stories.
Really? Seems like there are tomes for ancient Israel or Babylon.
EDIT: I'm also interested in what people's general reading experience is. You know, what the title suggested.
sophie
Break My Heart
Can be difficult at times. Manuscripts can be exceedingly difficult to follow, particularly when they aren't written in English. Dense historical linguistic or economic histories can take me significantly longer to read than most others. But your ordinary, garden-variety history? That's what I do for fun.
It can make a difference in your understanding and enjoyment of a classical work that's been translated from other languages into English, if the translators make errors or use words or phrases that can change the nuance of the text.
Tahuti
Writing Deity
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On the other hand, it would make an interesting area for reconstructions.
The Cambridge or Oxford History of X is usually a good starting point; from what I remember, Cambridge has an extremely large and complex history of the 'ancient world', while Oxford does several small books, of which 'Ancient Egypt' may well be one.
