Dialogues with the Dead

Egyptology in British Culture and Religion, 1822-1922

David Gange author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:13th Jun '13

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Dialogues with the Dead cover

Almost every great figure in nineteenth-century Britain, from Thomas Carlyle to William Gladstone to Charles Darwin, read histories of ancient Egypt and argued about their content. Egypt became a focal point in disputes over the nature of human origins, the patterns underlying human history, the status and purpose of the Bible, and the cultural role of the classics. Egyptian archaeology ingrained its influence everywhere from the lecture halls of the ancient universities to the devotional aids of rural Sunday schools, and the plots of sensation fiction. Dialogues with the Dead shows, for the first time, how Egyptology's development over the century that followed the decipherment of the hieroglyphic script in 1822 can be understood only through its intimate entanglement with the historical, scientific, and religious contentions which defined the era.

Dialogues with the Dead must be praised for promoting an inclusive and integrated history of British Egyptology ... It is an academic study that presents meticulous research in an accessible and engaging style, contributing many fresh and new insights to the subject ... essential reading for historians of the nineteenth century, as well as those with an interest in the history of Egyptology and Near Eastern archaeology, archaeological reception and representation. * Alice Williams, Egyptian Archaeology *
The definitive history of the study of ancient Egypt in nineteenth-century Britain. * Maria Golia, Times Literary Supplement *
[a] splendid cultural history of British Egyptology * Timothy Larsen, Books & Culture *

ISBN: 9780199653102

Dimensions: 221mm x 148mm x 27mm

Weight: 576g

368 pages