The Story of Egypt

The Story of Egypt: The Civilization that Shaped the World
by Joann Fletcher
Published in September 2015
496 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 2/5


This book is unimpressive and the writing style is annoying.


I was hoping for an in depth history of Egypt with a focus on chronology, statistics, and archeology. Despite the whining of the poets, this “boring” information helps me paint a much better mental picture of the civilization that I am studying than imagery does.


This book spends way too much time on the art of ancient Egypt, and the lives of the kings and their preparations for the after life. I don’t really care if Egyptian queens wore make up or not, or if they died their hair, or if they have painted nails or not.


This book probably has a lot of appeal to women in their mid 30s, but I am an unemotional and mildly autistic male. The style just isn’t for me.


I wish Fletcher would have included a much broader discussion of the geopolitical situation that the Egyptians faced. Who were their neighbors? What kind of conflicts did they have? Instead, Fletcher glosses over the geopolitics.


She also doesn’t include much in the way of economic analysis. How did the Egyptian economy function? What type of institutions and governments did they have? What kind of dispute arbitration did they have?


I am very curious about Egyptian history, but am instead going to look elsewhere to satisfy my curiosity around the topic.