Egyptologist Rohl compellingly presents a groundbreaking analysis of archaeological evidence for the historicity of the early books of the Old Testament. Because two centuries of archaeology in the Middle East have generally failed to prove the validity of the Old Testament accounts, historians have increasingly begun to relegate these ancient texts to the realm of folklore. Rohl, chairman of the Institute for Study of Interdisciplinary Sciences in London, acknowledges the paucity of evidence to support the conventional dating of biblical events, but he argues that the reason for this is that scholars have misdated important events in both Egyptian and biblical history, thus missing the biblical significance of archaeological finds. Closely analyzing such finds from Egypt, he concludes that archaeological support can be found for the major events of the early Old Testament by dating them according to his corrected ``New Chronology.'' According to this revised chronology, for instance, the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt took place in approximately 1447 b.c. (instead of c. 1250 b.c. as in the conventional dating). The most intriguing part of Rohl's text is his analysis of what he regards as archaeological evidence of biblical events: a ruined palace becomes the palace of the vizier Joseph, complete with a shattered statue of him; an ancient Egyptian city with evidence of Asiatic settlers becomes the place where the Israelites lived as slaves; another ancient town whose remains show signs of conflagration and mass burials proves to be Joshua's Jericho. If Rohl is correct, he has reanalyzed the archaeological record to find support for events told in the early books of the Bible, and he has produced a work with profound implications for both biblical and Egyptian history. A breathtaking archaeological tour de force, persuasively argued, sure to be controversial. The Learning Channel will begin airing a series based on this book in mid-January. (four-color and b&w photos, line drawings)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-517-70315-7
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1995
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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