Egypt

This article about Cleopatra in the Smithsonian Magazine questions the image of her in subsequent Western literature as a mere seductress. The author argues that she was a canny and powerful monarch, a savvy street fighter, and a great queen in her own right, who presided over one of the more prosperous and powerful countries […]

At the Napoleon’s Egypt blog, several letters are available on the early days of the occupation, some of them by members of the team of scientists Bonaparte brought with him. Excerpt: ‘ The port of Alexandria is divided into two very beautiful bays (with no great depth of water), separated by a dike or causeway […]

Note: My talk on Napoleon’s Egypt will be shown in the US on CSPAN-2 at 10 pm EDT on Sunday evening, September 9. At the Napoleon’s Egypt Blog, a letter from one of Bonaparte’s scientists (a botanist) exhibiting the disillusionment the invaders felt on seizing Egypt. My assistant said it reminded him of Conrad’s “Heart […]

Note: My talk on Napoleon’s Egypt will be shown in the US on CSPAN-2 at 10 pm EDT on Sunday evening, September 9. At the Napoleon’s Egypt blog, a late 18th century complaint from a regular officer about the enemy’s guerrilla tactics: “The Mameloucs [Mamluks]*, though beaten, may re-assemble. Their manner of making war authorizes […]

Roger Owen’s review of my new book, Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East is now online at The Nation. Owen, who teaches at Harvard, is among our foremost historians of modern Egypt, and one the few who have worked both on economic and on political history. He is author of State, Power and Politics in […]