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TEXT 6. Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper
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Hugh Redwald Trevor-Roper was an English historian of early modern Britain and Nazi Germany.
Trevor-Roper was born in Glanton, Northumberland, England, the son of a doctor, and educated at Charterhouse and at Christ Church, Oxford in Classics and Modern History. Initially, he had intended to make his career in the Classics, but became bored with what he regarded as the pedantic technical aspects of the Greats course at Oxford, and switched to History, where he obtained an honours first in 1936. During World War II, Trevor-Roper served as an officer in the Radio Security Service of the Secret Intelligence Service, and then on the interception of messages from the German intelligence service, the Abwehr. One of his most famous books was The Last Days of Hitler (1947), in which he described the last ten days in the life of Hitler.
For Trevor-Roper, the major themes of early modern Europe were those religious quarrels and of divergence between Protestant and Catholic states, the latter being outpaced by the former economically, politically and constitutionally. European expansion overseas was incidental to these processes. In Trevor-Roper's view, one of the major themes of early modern Europe was that of expansion: overseas expansion in the form of colonies and intellectual expansion in the form of the rise of nationalism, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment.
Trevor-Roper argued that history should be understood as an art, not a science, and asserted that key attribute of the successful historian was the power of imagination. For Trevor-Roper, history was full of contingency, and the story of the past was resolved by accident and through the particular choices that particular individuals made in the time at question. Though Trevor-Roper often acknowledged the impact of social trends upon history, in his view, it was the actions of the individuals that made the difference. However, in his studies of early modern Europe, Trevor-Roper did not focus exclusively upon political history, but rather sought to examine the interaction between the political, intellectual, social and religious trends of the period. His preferred medium for expressing himself was the essay rather the book.
A notable thesis propagated by Trevor-Roper was the «general crisis of the 17th century». He argued that the middle years of the 17th century in Western Europe saw a widespread break-down in politics, economics and society caused by a complex series of demographic, social, religious, economic and political problems.
At the age of sixty-seven, he became Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge.
The nadir of his career came in 1983, when as a director of The Times he "authenticated" the so-called Hitler Diaries. The opinion among experts in the field was by no means unanimous. The embarrassing incident gave Trevor-Roper's enemies at Peterhouse and elsewhere the opportunity to criticise him openly.
Despite the shadow that this incident cast over his later career, he continued writing and his work continued to be well received.
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(Source: сайт Wikipedia.org, portal: History).
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TEXT 7. Ancient Egypt
After the desertification of the Sahara, settlement became concentrated in the Nile Valley, where numerous sacral chiefdoms appeared. The regions with the largest population pressure were in the delta region of Lower Egypt, in Upper Egypt, and also along the second and third cataracts of the Dongola reach of the Nile in Nubia. This population pressure and growth was brought about by the cultivation of southwest Asian crops, including wheat and barley, and the raising of sheep, goats, and cattle. Population growth led to competition for farm land and the need to regulate farming. Regulation was established by the formation of bureaucracies among sacral chiefdoms. The first and most powerful of the chiefdoms was Ta-Seti, founded around 3500 BCE. The idea of sacral chiefdom spread throughout upper and lower Egypt.
Later consolidation of the chiefdoms into broader political entities began to occur in upper and lower Egypt, culminating into the unification of Egypt into one political entity by Narmer in 3100 BC. Instead of being viewed as a sacral chief, he became a divine king. The henotheism, or worship of a single god within a polytheistic system, practiced in the sacral chiefdoms along upper and lower Egypt, became the polytheistic religion of ancient Egypt. Bureaucracies became more centralized under the pharaohs, run by viziers, governors, tax collectors, generals, artists, and technicians. They engaged in tax collecting, organizing of labor for major public works, and building irrigation systems, pyramids, temples, and canals. During the Fourth Dynasty (2620-2480 BC), long distance trade was developed.
After the third millennium BC, Egypt started to extend direct military and political control over her southern and western neighbors. By 2200 BC, the Old Kingdom's stability was undermined by rivalry among the governors of the nomes who challenged the power of pharaohs and by invasions of Asiatics into the delta.
By 2130, the period of stagnation was ended by Mentuhotep, the first Pharaoh of the 11th dynasty, and the emergence of the Middle Kingdom. Pyramid building resumed, long-distance trade re-emerged, and the center of power moved from Memphis to Thebes.
Then came the Second Intermediate Period, with the invasion of the Hyksos on horse-drawn chariots and utilizing bronze weapons, a technology heretofore unseen in Egypt. The Hyksos failed to hold on to their Egyptian territories and were absorbed by Egyptian society. This eventually led to one of Egypt's most powerful phases, the New Kingdom (1580–1080 BC), with the Eighteenth Dynasty. As before, the New Kingdom ended with invasion from the west by Libyan princes, leading to the Third Intermediate Period. Beginning with Shoshenq I, the Twenty-second Dynasty was established. It ruled for two centuries.
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To the south, Nubian independence and strength was being reasserted. This reassertion led to the conquest of Egypt by Nubia. This was the birth of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. The Nubians tried to re-establish Egyptian traditions and customs. They ruled Egypt for a hundred years. This was ended by an Assyrian invasion. When the Assyrians and Nubians left, a new Twenty-sixth Dynasty emerged from Sais. It lasted until 525 BC, when Egypt was invaded by the Persians. Unlike the Assyrians, the Persians stayed. In 332, Egypt was conquered by Alexander the Great. This was the beginning of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which ended with Roman conquest in 30 BC. Pharaonic Egypt had come to an end.
(Source: Robert Hahn. Ancient Egypt (2009). Aesthetics and Culture. Vol. 4, No. 8, 110-113.)
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