First Civilizations: Ancient Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt

by Robert Chadwick

First published in French in 1996, this second edition of First Civilizations has been expanded and updated offering an up-to-date overview of Mesopotamia and Egypt. Geared towards students new to the subject, the readable text and abundant illustrations offer a basic guide to the history of these two civilisations with discussion of other topics such as religion, science and medicine.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

269 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2005

Reviews

[Zjay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. I only wish he had included the Indus Valley and Yellow River civilizations.

[Dominic Foo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall a good very general survey of Ancient Near East (ANE) history, in very broad brushstrokes, and written from a secular perspective. I think the book performs the function of giving one a broad overview and skeleton of the history and culture of the ANE quite well, for the most part the narrative flows quite well and it is easy to read. However, at points I think it gets bogged down a little with a technical details about building constructions. I would recommend this book as a good introduction to ANE and a springboard for further study, but my taking away two stars is mainly for what I think is unnecessary skepticism about Biblical accounts and already mentioned overemphasis on construction details.

[Matthew Barlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introductory academic text. Must have for students of Egypt.