Redford, D.B. 2004. From slave to pharaoh. The black experience of ancient Egypt. – Baltimore/London, The Johns Hopkins University Press

Abstract

Donald Redford (Penn State University) enjoys a reputation for the ability to make the broad sweep of ancient history simultaneously accessible and fascinating for layman, student and scholar alike. This much-admired talent stems in no small part from the fact that Redford is that, once common but presently rare, combination of both specialist and generalist; Egyptologist, ancient historian and archaeologist, a veteran commentator able to capture and effectively convey a vision of sometimes difficult history, marshalling the available sources in all their range and variety to reconstruct the past in his own inimitable style.

Redford maintains his hard-won reputation in the handsome yet compact publication that is presently the subject of review (the inspection volume was the hardback edition), achieving largely for relations between Egypt and Nubia, that which his 1992 work ‘Egypt, Canaan and Israel in ancient times’ achieved for Egypt’s relations with the Levant and Western Asia: a scholarly-based overview of primary developments and trends, employing a semi-popular style with wide appeal to survey the range of available sources and scholarly thinking. If anything, the current title achieves greater general readability, presented in a decidedly more concise fashion and penned in a less verbose, more accessible level of language. This praise is not without some qualification, however... Read more...