The American Discovery of Ancient Egypt

Nancy Thomas, Los Angeles County Museum Of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Angeles County Museum of Art, $49.5 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-8109-6312-2

European Egyptologists Jean-Fran ois Champollion and Howard Carter are famed, but what of the Americans George Reisner, James Henry Breasted and Herbert Winlock? The American Discovery of Ancient Egypt by Nancy Thomas, a curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, retrieves them from near-obscurity in essays by Gerry D. Scott III and Bruce G. Trigger and 227 illustrations (70 in color) of objects excavated by Americans and displayed in the extensive collections of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and other U.S. museums. (Abrams, $49.50 288p ISBN 0-8109-6312-4)

Featured Nonfiction Reviews

Bruce Chadwick

The Battle of Gettysburg was a dramatic combination of pathos and absurdity, according to this remarkable selection of primary sources from historian Chadwick (The Cannons Continue reading »

Joshua Howe, Alexander Lemons

Howe (Behind the Curve), a professor of environmental history at Reed College, and U.S. Marine veteran Lemons team up for a searing mix of wartime memoir and scientific Continue reading »

Rich Benjamin

Benjamin (Searching for Whitopia) delivers a devastating memoir about the ripple effects of the coup that ousted his grandfather, Haitian president Daniel Fignolé, in 1957. Continue reading »

Marlene L Daut

Historian Daut (Awakening the Ashes) offers a powerful biography of Henry Christophe (1767-1820), who fought for, defected from, and ultimately ruled over Haiti. She first Continue reading »