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A review by vegancleopatra
Egyptomania: Our Three Thousand Year Obsession with the Land of the Pharaohs by Bob Brier
3.0
2.5 stars
I really enjoyed Brier's enthusiasm but overall I was disappointed in the book. I appreciated learning about the plethora of Egypt-themed items on the market previously and now. The amount of advertising using Ancient Egyptian themes is pretty incredible, although this was largely many years ago. Overall I understood Brier's interest in collecting the various items but it really just brought attention to the fact that my love of Ancient Egypt has everything to do with the actual history and figures rather than the items created that allude to them. But I will admit to finding some of the items entertaining and worthy of collection.
One of the biggest problems I had with the book was the numerous stories of the moving of obelisks to New York etc. There were approximately 70 pages of this fairly short non-fiction dedicated to the obelisk movements and I must say they were absolutely yawn worthy for me. Perhaps if you also have a keen interest in mechanical engineering and such you may find it more appealing, but really a paragraph per obelisk would have sufficed in my opinion.
I also questioned whether Brier was just talking hypothetical or actually believes that Ramesses is likely the Pharaoh involved in the "Exodus". Hopefully he does not actually believe it because most archaeologists and historians state that it did not happen, even many Biblical scholars. There simply is no evidence and I found it extremely annoying that Brier would even both to connect Ramesses to such nonsense.
I really enjoyed Brier's enthusiasm but overall I was disappointed in the book. I appreciated learning about the plethora of Egypt-themed items on the market previously and now. The amount of advertising using Ancient Egyptian themes is pretty incredible, although this was largely many years ago. Overall I understood Brier's interest in collecting the various items but it really just brought attention to the fact that my love of Ancient Egypt has everything to do with the actual history and figures rather than the items created that allude to them. But I will admit to finding some of the items entertaining and worthy of collection.
One of the biggest problems I had with the book was the numerous stories of the moving of obelisks to New York etc. There were approximately 70 pages of this fairly short non-fiction dedicated to the obelisk movements and I must say they were absolutely yawn worthy for me. Perhaps if you also have a keen interest in mechanical engineering and such you may find it more appealing, but really a paragraph per obelisk would have sufficed in my opinion.
I also questioned whether Brier was just talking hypothetical or actually believes that Ramesses is likely the Pharaoh involved in the "Exodus". Hopefully he does not actually believe it because most archaeologists and historians state that it did not happen, even many Biblical scholars. There simply is no evidence and I found it extremely annoying that Brier would even both to connect Ramesses to such nonsense.