A History of Ancient Egypt: Egyptian Civilization in Context

by Donald B. Redford

Book by REDFORD DONALD B

Genres: History

326 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

About the author

Donald Bruce Redford was a Canadian Egyptologist, archaeologist, and Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Pennsylvania State University; he retired in 2024. Redford directed a number of important excavations in Egypt, notably at Karnak and Mendes.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Donald B. Redford is one of my favorite historians of Ancient Egypt for his clear-eyed assessments and intelligent summaries. His vocabulary sometimes sends me scurrying to a dictionary (he never uses "native" where "autochthonous" will fit, for instance), but since I'm a word nerd that's not necessarily a bad thing. This work appears to be a prototype for a major multivolume history of Egypt to incorporate original source materials, which is very exciting. I can't give this precursor work five stars because it is not thoroughly annotated and is somewhat indifferently illustrated, but as an overview of what we know about Ancient Egypt from prehistory until the Ptolemies, it's one of the best I've seen, incorporating recent findings with a solid basis in established scholarship. I will be looking forward eagerly to the completion of the full multivolume work!