Books

Books : reviews

John Romer.
A History of Ancient Egypt: from the first farmers to the great pyramid.
Penguin. 2012

How, over a thousand years, did a culture of semi-itinerate farmers create the rich, vivid, world of ancient Egypt, culminating with the Great Pyramid? In this extraordinary book John Romer draws on a lifetime of research to tell one of the greatest human stories.

Showing how archaeological evidence has allowed this long-vanished civilization to gradually re-appear from under the sand, and the changing interpretations to which its breathtaking but enigmatic remains have been subjected, Romer reveals what these highly idiosyncratic objects have to tell us. The result is an engrossing detective story, as we discover what we really know of Nile civilization – and where the record remains silent.

John Romer.
A History of Ancient Egypt 2: from the great pyramid to the fall of the Middle Kingdom.
Penguin. 2016

The extraordinary era between Egypt’s Great Pyramid and the fall of the Middle Kingdom was a golden age, encompassing its greatest literary and artistic achievements. Using a wealth of fresh discoveries, the second volume of John Romer’s epic history of ancient Egypt reshapes our understanding of the world’s first-known state.