The rise and fall of ancient Egypt? Egyptology's never-ending story

In an op-ed piece on The Wall Street Journal's website promoting his latest book, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt (Wilkinson, T. 2010), Toby Wilkinson draws parallels between events in Egypt's past to those in its present. “The current situation in Egypt”, we are told, “comes as no surprise to a student of the country's long history” (Wilkinson, T. 2011). It is only appropriate to observe, then, that the problematic nature of Wilkinson's book comes as no surprise to a historian of Egyptology. Both it — and the accompanying comparison of the country's past to its present — are part of a long tradition (although tradition is too positive a word) of questionable Egyptological analysis.