Napoleon in Egypt | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul Strathern
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
List Price: $30.00
Buy New: $14.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 76630
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 1.4
ISBN: 0553806785
Dewey Decimal Number: 962.03
EAN: 9780553806786
ASIN: 0553806785
Publication Date: October 21, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
“Europe is a molehill….”
Everything here is worn out…tiny Europe has not enough to offer.
We must set off for the Orient; that is where all the greatest glory is to be achieved.” —Napoleon
Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt was the first Western attack in modern times on a Middle Eastern country. In this remarkably rich and eminently readable historical account, acclaimed author Paul Strathern reconstructs a mission of conquest inspired by glory, executed in haste, and bound for disaster.
In 1798, Napoleon Bonaparte, only twenty-eight, mounted the most audacious military campaign of his already spectacular career. With 335 ships, 40,000 soldiers, and a collection of scholars, artists, scientists, and inventors, he set sail for Egypt to establish an Eastern empire in emulation of Alexander the Great. Like everything Napoleon ever attempted, it was a plan marked by unquenchable ambition, heroic romanticism, and not a little madness.
Napoleon saw himself as a liberator, freeing the Egyptians from the oppression of their Mameluke overlords. But while Napoleon thought his army would be welcomed as heroes, he tragically misunderstood Muslim culture and grossly overestimated the “gratitude” he could expect from those he’d come to save. Instead Napoleon and his men would face a grim war of attrition against an ad hoc army of Muslims led by the feared Murad Bey. Marching across seemingly endless deserts in the shadow of the pyramids, suffering extremes of heat and thirst, and pushed to the limits of human endurance, they would be plagued by mirages, suicides, and the constant threat of ambush. A crusade begun in honor and intended for glory would degenerate toward chaos and atrocity.
But Napoleon’s grand failure in Egypt also yielded vast treasures of knowledge about a culture largely lost to the West, and through the recovery of artifacts like the Rosetta Stone, it prepared the way for the translation of hieroglyphics and modern Egyptology. And it tempered the complex leader who believed it his destiny to conquer the world.
A story of war, adventure, politics, and a clash of cultures, Paul Strathern’s Napoleon in Egypt is history at once relevant and impossible to put down.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Lively account January 8, 2009
I enjoyed every page of this superb history. In excellent, entertaining prose we are given the reasons and context for this strange expedition, the many personalities involved, and their adventures on the way to Egypt (where they miss being intercepted by the British navy by one day!) We are then treated to a blow-by-blow account of the military encounters and political machinations that ensued on the part of Napoleon, his generals, the feeble French goverment back home, the Mamelukes, the Turks, the British, and Egypt's neighbors. The aftermath and consequences of all this are satisfyingly, often shrewdly, dealt with. This expedition eerily foreshadowed the rest of Napoleon's career. But this is not all - there are the many scientists and "savants" which Napoleon brought with him, and their groundbreaking discoveries which began Egyptology as we know it. There are wonderful accounts of daily life in Cairo at the time and the local Muslim point of view. (Another fascination for me was that reading this book, I could not help but think of the recent ill-advised U.S. invasion of Iraq, whose organizers hoped to be greeted as liberators and spreaders of enlightened government, but were instead scorned as interfering invaders by many.) This book is full of amusing details. I couldn't ask for a more clear, engaging account of this inherently interesting subject.
 Napoleon on the Nile December 28, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Competently told from a Western perspective, Mr. Strathern's book provides a general overview of the famous invasion in 1798 by the French of Egypt, a harsh landscape then dominated by Mamelukes, Janissaries and Bedouins and studded with stunning relics of forgotten peoples. With military, religious, and scientific aspects, this event, organized and led by Napoleon Bonaparte, was a true clash of civilizations.
Those who may still admire, if not revere, Napoleon must pause and reflect on such inexcusable atrocities as his cold-blooded order to murder some 4,000 prisoners of war after a battle in the Syrian campaign.
While I assume other as good or better histories of this pivotal adventure exist, I did find this workman-like effort by Paul Strathern superior to a similar one I read by Juan Cole, entitled "Napoleon's Egypt" (2007).
An excellent work November 26, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Illustrated with maps, diagrams and photographs this book looks at Napoleon's ambitious overseas adventure... his invasion of Egypt while he was serving the Republic as a general.
Fresh from his campaign in Italy, Napoleon collected a large fleet, transports and a small army, all with the consent of the Directory. His objective was to take over Egypt, which was nominally a part of the Ottoman Empire, and in doing so spread the ideals of the Revolution and to threaten British holdings in India.
The author does an excellent job of discussing the practical problems involved in collecting the invasion force, the initial campaign for Egypt, Napoleon's attempts to rebuild that ancient country's social structure in accordance with his ideals of liberty and fraternity and his scientific mission to explore the land of the Pharoahs. The book is not only well-researched but it is also a gripping read. I feel that it could have done without intimate details of Napoleon's love life, but that may be just me. Otherwise, this is an excellent military and social study.
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