EGYPT, GIFT OF THE NILE

When all the classes -- from jr. high school on up to freshmen in college-- make their en masse descent on the library each fall at ancient history time, it hardly matters whether a book is good, bad or indifferent, just so long as it mentions Egypt. This, thank Tut, is an especially good book. It benefits from the fund of information at the command of a scholarly author (Associate Professor at the University of Washington). It is clearly and directly written -- accurate and succinct enough to trot the advanced student and easy enough to grasp for the slowest of the slow. Under examination is the whole range of Egyptian civilization and the direct earing of the Nile on Egyptian affairs from the time of the ancient villagers through to the collapse of the New Kingdom, B.C. The economy, the life and the occupations of the peasant class; the outstanding rulers and wars are covered at capsule length -- but the capsules are full. The illustrations did not arrive with the galley, but their aptions did. It would seem from these that the pictorial essay which is to start the book will be an excellent and important aid in the visualization of the information in the text. Timeline.