the personal journal of Brent Stewart
Captivating History publishes a line of books that I’d term “Historical Summarization”. These books are generally not in depth and not always well organized, but they’re short and serve as an adequate introduction to a topic. At 115 pages, this isn’t a huge book. It bogs down in places, as such books do when they start running through a list of names. However, I am familiar with European history and have become more interested in filling in middle-eastern history. I found this book interesting and picked up some interesting facts.
Nubia and the successor kingdoms of Kerma and Kush sat upriver from Egypt. The Nile has several difficult to navigate rapids, called cataracts, and Nubia went as far north at times as the first cataract. The geography, with both civilizations tied to the Nile and Nubia as a gateway into Africa was an important understanding.
I also learned about the interplay between Nubia and Egypt, including that Nubia occupied Egypt at times and produced “Black Pharoahs”. There was some side discussion of the interaction of Nubia, Egypt, and the other major powers of the late BCE such as Assyria, Babylon, and Rome, but I wish that had been developed further.
I picked up the e-book for free from Amazon. I’m glad I read it, but I’m also a little glad that it’s not taking up bookshelf space and that I didn’t overpay. In general, I would recommend the Captivating History books as being similar to a long-form article that sketches out a topic. Particularly for free, they make good ebooks to have available when stuck in a waiting room.