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The Culture of Ancient Egypt Paperback – Illustrated, August 15, 1956

by John A. Wilson (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 16 ratings
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The story of Egypt is the story of history itself—the endless rise and fall, the life and death and life again of the eternal human effort to endure, enjoy, and understand the mystery of our universe. Emerging from the ancient mists of time, Egypt met the challenge of the mystery in a glorious evolution of religious, intellectual, and political institutions and for two millenniums flourished with all the vigor that the human heart can invest in a social and cultural order. Then Egypt began to crumble into the desert sands and the waters of the Nile, and her remarkable achievements in civilization became her lingering epitaph. John A. Wilson has written a rich and interpretive biography of one of the greatest cultural periods in human experience. He answers—as best the modern Egyptologist can—the questions inevitably asked concerning the dissolution of Egypt's glory. Here is scholarship in its finest form, concerned with the humanity that has preceded us, and finding in man's past grandeur and failure much meaning for men of today.
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  1. Print length
    352 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    University of Chicago Press
  4. Publication date
    August 15, 1956
  5. Dimensions
    8.1 x 5.32 x 0.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0226901521
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0226901527
  8. See all details
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The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Egypt," wrote the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, "is the gift of the Nile." John Wilson amplifies Herodotus's theme, showing how the rich soils of the Nile made possible the growth of civilizations from the earliest native dynasties to the late Roman empire. He also provides compelling biographical sketches of players who are even now famous--Nefertiti, Amenhotep, and Tutankhamen among them. Although it needs some updating because of recent discoveries, Wilson's book, first published in 1951, remains among the best one-volume introductions to the history of ancient Egypt.

About the Author

The late John A. Wilson was Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press (August 15, 1956)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0226901521
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226901527
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.06 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.1 x 5.32 x 0.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 16 ratings

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
16 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Marlo Gordon
5.0 out of 5 stars History
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2019
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My son really liked the book. He is really interested in Egyptian history
2 people found this helpful
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Charles Bane
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant.
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2018
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A masterpiece of knowledge coupled with eloquence.
4 people found this helpful
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Jimmy.C
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2017
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good book! really like it
One person found this helpful
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Renae Schlittenhard
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2015
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What I was looking for. Fast shipping.
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Dr. Michael M. Eisman
3.0 out of 5 stars Old, interesting but out of date.
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2009
Wilson's book is now a half century old. In its time and for quiet a while, it was the standard one volume text. But time, archaeology and knowledge marches on. Wilson is certainly a good read and for the study of Egypt an important one, but much has changed in the field. I mention only the emphasis on hydrolics as a conditions factor of Egyptian life, and our increasing understanding of the interrelationship between Egypt and Africa, as examples. Many points covered by Wilson have also seen new theories and ideas emerge and be accepted. Read with historical understanding of the field of Egyptology and caution.
9 people found this helpful
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Ian M. Slater
5.0 out of 5 stars Ian Myles Slater on: Egypt's Burden
Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2012
This volume was first published by the University of Chicago Press, as "The Burden of Egypt" (Oriental Institute Essay, 1951). The title, as revealed by an epigraph, was from the King James Version of Isaiah 19:1, and means "The Message Concerning Egypt." The 1954 Phoenix Paperback edition from the same publisher, in very slightly different form, was given the rather dull, but more informative, title of "The Culture of Ancient Egypt." (I am not sure how closely the Kessinger reprint, in hardcover and paperback, follows the pagination of the original.)

This title change was perhaps just as well -- by the 1960s "The Burden of Egypt" was being listed in some textbooks on Middle Eastern history among books about British rule in Egypt, presumably by people who didn't think to look beyond the card catalogue, and certainly didn't catch the biblical allusion.

One could indulge in interesting reflections on the generational differences in Biblical literacy involved in the title change. More pertinent is the fact that the "Oriental Institute Essays" (the others being Henri Frankfort's "Kingship and the Gods," and the collaborative "Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man" -- also published, shortened, as "Before Philosophy," with the sections by Wilson, Frankfort, and Thorkild Jacobsen) were exercises in very high-level popularization, with enough substance to interest specialists.

Wilson had a busy career as an Egyptologist, and as director of the Oriental Institute during the difficult years of the Great Depression. He definitely belonged on the language side of Egyptology, rather than the archeological; his associates have reported that his favorite self-description was "a grammarian." (Most of his fieldwork seems to have been in connection with the early years of the Oriental Institute's Epigraphic Survey, still in progress.) He was also (as the second title indicates) more interested in understanding the underlying concepts of Egypt civilization, as against expounding a detailed political history. (The latter, as he often observed in his later writings about Egyptology, produced unfortunate disputes, often based on incomplete data; see his "Signs & Wonders Upon Pharaoh: A History of American Egyptology," 1964, and "Thousands of Years: An Archaeologist's Search for Ancient Egypt," Scribners Scientific Memoirs, 1972.) His version of cultural history, however, was alert to the roles of wealth and power.

"Burden" / "Culture" is based squarely on his own detailed knowledge of Egyptian writings, and illuminated by well-chosen examples of Egyptian art. Since he was dealing with some demonstrable constants of Egyptian intellectual life, from the Pyramid Texts to Hellenistic times, most of the book probably needs corrections mostly in fine detail (if at all), and, where later textual information warrants it, in his translations. The only obviously obsolete passages are some of his comments on the geology of Egypt, and the hydrology of the Nile, and his whole discussion of the fascinating Amarna episode (Akhenaten, Nefertiti,and Tutankhamun), which seems to undergo wholesale revision every five or ten years. (Wilson himself revised his opinion on some points.) Absolute dates for less controversial episodes and reigns are also subject to correction (the Oriental Institute has published a long series of studies of Egyptian chronology and Egyptian calendar systems).

I can't claim any Egyptological credentials for this view -- it is just a conclusion reached after comparing Wilson's account with works by qualified Egyptologists published in the last thirty or so years.

Besides new copies of the paperback edition, and a hardcover incarnation under the same title, Kessinger reprints, and various used copies of both "Burden" and Culture" from dealers, available through Amazon or elsewhere, the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute has issued free pdf versions of both titles, available as "Miscellaneous Publications" on their website. These are a little awkward to use -- nothing is interactive about them, and the digital page numbers are not "logical" (i.e., they don't correspond to the page-numbering of the print edition). Still, the price is always right, and the book is not so long or so complex in layout that reading the pdf becomes another type of burden.

[On the day this review was posted, the Oriental Institute put up another large set of "Miscellaneous Publications" (their category) in pdf, including "The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man: An Essay on Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near," by H. and Helene A. Frankfort, John A. Wilson, Thorkild Jacobsen, and William A. Irwin. Originally published in 1948, it represents much of the conceptual background in which Wilson was working. Penguin Books issued a shortened version (without Irwin's "Old Testament" material) under the title "Before Philosophy," which for decades was the form in which it was best known. The pdf is the full version, with revised select bibliographies from from the paperback edition of 1977. It goes well with "Kingship and the Gods" and "The Burden of Egypt," ]

Some readers will be interested in seeing more of the the ancient texts Wilson quotes, and perhaps wonder if he had been picking and choosing convenient examples to fit his theories. In fact, Wilson had, for a couple of decades, been translating key Egyptian texts for his own use, and only quoted from some of them in "Burden" and "Intellectual Adventure." A fuller set appeared in James B. Pritchard's "Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament" (1950, revised 1955; expanded edition 1969), most commonly referred to for decades as ANET.

Wilson's total contributions amount to a fair-sized anthology on their own. Unfortunately they were not well-represented in the the paperback selection of "The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures," (1958; later re-leased as "Volume 1") or in "The Ancient Near East, Volume 2: A New Anthology of Texts and Pictures" (1976). Indeed, the latter intentionally only included material added in 1969. The pictures, which included some interesting Egyptian material, came from "The Ancient Near East in Pictures Relating to the Old Testament" also edited by Pritchard (1954; with supplement, 1969)

All of these are officially out of print, but in 2010 Princeton University Press issued a complete, but re-ordered edition, of the material in the two paperbacks, re-edited by Daniel E. Fleming, as "The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts and Pictures". This is available and the paperback edition is at a reasonable price, figuring in the current (January 2013) Amazon discount. It is still unrivaled for expansive coverage, although the contents are anywhere between fifty and thirty years old; in Wilson's case, as noted, sometimes older still. There are also many unfortunate cuts in the included material from the 1958 volume. So I can't give it an unqualified recommendation.

Wilson's translations were frequently cited for decades, and are still informative, and strictly from that point of view a library copy of ANET is worth consulting. However, the Egyptian texts are exceeded in coverage by Miriam Lichtheim's three-volume "Ancient Egyptian Literature," which is itself somewhat aging (1973-1980; re-issued 2006, including a Kindle edition). Less comprehensive, but also less dated, is W.K. Simpson et al., "Literature of Ancient Egypt" (third edition 2003), which has received a number of reviews (including one of mine), several of which are interesting and informative. It, too, extensively overlaps with Wilson.
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