January 2024 MBR The World History Shelf

The World History Shelf

The Long War for Britannia 367 - 664
Edwin Pace
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.penandswordbooks.com
9781399013758, $42.95, HC, 400pp

https://www.amazon.com/Long-War-Britannia-367-644-Post-Roman/dp/1399013750

Synopsis: With the publication of "The Long War for Britannia 367 - 664: Arthur and the History of Post-Roman Britain", historian Edwin Pace recounts some two centuries of 'lost' British history, while providing decisive proof that the early records for this period are the very opposite of 'fake news'. This unique British history shows that the discrepancies in dates claimed by many scholars are illusory. Every early source originally recorded the same events in the same year. It is only the transition to Anno Domini dating centuries afterward that distorts our perceptions.

Of equal significance, "The Long War for Britannia 367 - 664" demonstrates that King Arthur and Uther Pendragon are the very opposite of medieval fantasy. Current scholarly doubts arose from the fact that different British regions had very different memories of post-Roman British rulers. Some remembered Arthur as the 'Proud Tyrant', a monarch who plunged the island into civil war. Others recalled him as the British general who saved Britain when all seemed lost. The deeds of Uther Pendragon replicate the victories of the dread Mercian king Penda. These authentic (yet radically different) narratives distort history to this very day.

Critique: An inherently fascinating, unique, documented, and extraordinarily well written history, "The Long War for Britannia 367 - 664: Arthur and the History of Post-Roman Britain" is further enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of a twenty-eight page Bibliography and a ten page Glossary. Impressively informative and a singularly invaluable contribution to the study of post-Roman Britain and the legends/stories of Arthur Pendragon, "The Long War for Britannia 367-664" is a very special and strongly recommended contribution to personal, professional, community, and college/university library histories of Great Britain' history. It should be noted for students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Long War for Britannia 367-664" is also available in a paperback edition (9781399013796, $26.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $3.99).

Editorial Note: Edwin Pace has an advanced degree in European history and honed his analytical skills in a three-decade long career as an intelligence analyst, working for both NSA and GCHQ. He has published half a dozen peer-reviewed articles on various aspects of the research behind this book in the Journal of the Australian Medieval Society and Arthuriana. He has defended parts of his hypothesis in conferences at the University of Boulogne (ULCO), Western Michigan University, and the International Arthurian Society, British Branch. He is the author of a work of popular history, Arthur and the Fall of Roman Britain.

The Nubian Pharaohs of Egypt: Their Lives and Afterlives
Aidan Dodson
American University in Cairo Press
www.aucpress.com
9781649031631, $35.00, HC, 228pp

https://www.amazon.com/Nubian-Pharaohs-Egypt-Their-Afterlives/dp/1649031637

Synopsis: The region of Nubia (now spanning the modern border between Egypt and Sudan) was long a subject of Egyptian imperial domination by its ancient pharaohs. However, in the eighth century BC matters were suddenly reversed, when the kings of Kush (the ancient name for Nubia), became the overlords of Egypt for nearly a century, before being forced to withdraw in the face of Assyrian invasions. Yet the Kushite kingdom would endure back in its heartlands for another millennium, the heritage of its Egyptian sojourn still visible in its fields of pyramid tombs.

"The Nubian Pharaohs of Egypt: Their Lives and Afterlives" by Professor Aidan Dodson is an authoritative yet accessible and illustrated history that tells the story of these Nubian pharaohs of Egypt, from the origins of their kingdom of Kush, through their time as rulers of Egypt, to their heritage in the heart of Sudan -- and their rediscovery in modern times.

The latter uncovers some very unsavory examples of the racist attitudes of some earlier scholars. These engendered enduringly negative attitudes to aspects of careers of the Nubian pharaohs that find little support in the actual surviving evidence. The latter includes a fascinating network of texts from not only Egypt and Sudan, but also Assyria and the Bible, reflecting the interactions and conflicts of the period. There are also the standing monuments of Nubian pharaohs, ranging from temples they built throughout their dominions, to their tombs: pyramids, constructed in their ancestral heartland, in which Nubian and Egyptian funerary customs were intriguingly entangled.

Richly illustrated throughout in full color, "The Nubian Pharaohs of Egypt: Their Lives and Afterlives" is a fascinating study by a leading Egyptologist will be essential reading for anyone interested in the lives and times of Egypt's Nubian pharaohs.

Critique: Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, "The Nubian Pharaohs of Egypt: Their Lives and Afterlives" by Professor Aidan Dodson is significantly enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of an informative Preface, a listing of abbreviations and conventions, a ten page Introduction, a four page Chronicle of Ancient Egypt, twelve pages of Notes, a fourteen page Bibliography, a two page listing of Sources of Images, and a six page Index. A work of meticulous scholarship, this hefty large format (8 x 1 x 10 inches, 2.6 pounds) hardcover edition of "The Nubian Pharaohs of Egypt: Their Lives and Afterlives" from the American University of Cairo Press must be considered as an indispensable and critically necessary addition to personal, professional, community, and college/university library Egyptian History collections and supplemental Egyptology curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Aidan Dodson is honorary full professor of Egyptology in the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Bristol, UK. He was also Simpson Professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo in 2013 and Chair of the Egypt Exploration Society during 2011 - 16. Awarded his PhD by the University of Cambridge in 1995, he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 2003. He is the author of some twenty-five books and over four hundred articles and reviews.

Aurelian and Probus: The Soldier Emperors Who Saved Rome
Ilkka Syvanne
Pen & Sword Books
c/o Casemate (US distribution)
www.casematepublishers.com
https://www.penandswordbooks.com
9781526767509, $42.95, HC, 336pp

https://www.amazon.com/Aurelian-Probus-Soldier-Emperors-Saved/dp/1526767503

Synopsis: "Aurelian and Probus: The Soldier Emperors Who Saved Rome" by historian Ilkka Syvanne is the biographical and military history of the Roman emperors Lucius Domitius Aurelianus (270-275) and Marcus Aurelius Probus (276-282).

In this detailed study, Syvanne offers a an informed and informative history of the emperors Lucius Domitius Aurelianus (who reigned from 270 to 275) and Marcus Aurelius Probus (who reigned from 276 to 282). Also included are the other reigns between the years 268 and 285. It shows how these two remarkable emperors were chiefly responsible for the Empire surviving and emerging largely intact from a period of intense crisis. It was Aurelian who first united the breakaway regions, including Zenobia's Palmyra, and it was Probus who then secured his achievements.

The reigns of Aurelian and Probus have been subjected to many studies, but none of these have approached the extant material purely from the point of view of a military analysis. Most importantly, the previous historians have not exploited the analytical opportunities provided by the military treatises that describe the strategy and tactics of the period Roman army. It is thanks to this new methodology that Ilkka Syvanne has been able to reconstruct the military campaigns of these two soldier emperors and their other contemporaries in far greater detail than has been possible before.

Critique: Impressively informative, thoroughly documented, inherently fascinating, exceptionally well written, exceptionally illustrated, and thoroughly 'reader friendly in organized and presentation, "Aurelian and Probus: The Soldier Emperors Who Saved Rome" is a singularly important and unreservedly recommended acquisition for personal, professional, community, and college/university library Roman History/Biography collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists. For students, academia, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "Aurelian and Probus: The Soldier Emperors Who Saved Rome" is also readily available in a paperback edition (9781399021456, $28.95) and in a digital book format (Kindle, $2.99).

Editorial Note: Dr. Ilkka Syvanne gained his doctorate in history in 2004 from the University of Tampere in his native Finland. Since then he has written extensively about ancient and medieval warfare and his publications include: 'The Age of Hippotoxotai, Art of War in Roman Military Revival and Disaster 491-636' (Tampere UP 2004), 'The Reign of Gallienus' (Pen & Sword, 2019), the multivolume 'Military History of Late Rome' published by Pen & Sword and the critically acclaimed Caracalla. He is the co-author with Professor Katarzyna Maksymiuk of the 'Military History of Third Century Iran' (Siedlce UP, 2018) and the 'Military History of Fifth Century Iran' (Siedlce UP, 2019). He was Vice Chairman of the Finnish Society for Byzantine Studies from 2007 until 2016. He has been an Affiliated Professor of the University of Haifa since 2016. (https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Ilkka-Syvanne/a/2164)

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