This week: How ancient was ancient Egypt? How old is the world? What happens when archaeology contradicts the Bible? Read on for some answers. Also: Jane Eyre on stage, new evidence in the curious case of would-be regicide George McMahon, and a history of self-experimentation with drugs.
Hungry for power, in 1798 Napoleon sailed off across the Mediterranean, backed by a contingent of 50,000 military men and 151 scholarly volunteers. Napoleon’s critics denounced this mission as an expensive, ill-judged attempt to compete with British global expansion by colonising part of northern Africa. But for those in the academic contingent, his initiative represented a thrilling opportunity. Pursued by Horatio Nelson’s British fleet, they spent 30 days on the emperor’s ship before disembarking in Alexandria.
During the next three years, this diverse group of researchers investigated every aspect of Egyptian civilisation they could uncover. Even though around a quarter of them died within the next few years, from their perspective Napoleon’s expedition yielded detailed information about a land virtually unknown to Europeans.
‘Jane Eyre’ Goes to the Theatre When it arrived on the Victorian stage, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre had a cast of new characters and a new social order.
George McMahon: Fascist Assassin or British Spy? Having tried to assassinate Edward VIII, George McMahon then outed himself as an agent of a ‘foreign power’. Does the discovery of new documents solve the puzzle or obscure it further?
‘Bismarck’s War’ by Rachel Chrastil review Bismarck’s War: The Franco-Prussian War and the Making of Modern Europe by Rachel Chrastil argues that German victory was a catastrophe for Germany and the world.
‘Psychonauts’ by Mike Jay review Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind by Mike Jay is a fascinating study of cyclical attitudes towards self-experimentation.
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