A Tale Of Two Titles

I PLAN to refight the original Battle of Megiddo, ie the one fought at some point in the 15th century BC between Egypt and a rebellious Canaanite coalition.

It can probably truly lay claim to be the first battle in history where there is enough evidence to reconstruct a convincing outline of what happened, why it happened, and how it happened.

All our evidence comes from inscriptions ordered by the victor, Pharoah Thutmose III, and to understand them I have bought two books, both called The Battle Of Megiddo.

 

A contrast in size, but an even bigger contrast in quality

The larger book has a completely inappropriate cover, but otherwise is a reasonably faithful reproduction by Leopold Classic Library of Harold Nelson's 1913 dissertation for his doctorate from Chicago University, written after visits to the battlefield and surrounding lands in 1909 and 1912.

I write "reasonably faithful" as, although the book includes photographs, admittedly of varying quality, it omits Nelson's maps

Fortunately, informative maps, based on Nelson's work, can be found online, and are a handy aid while reading the book, which makes for a gripping account.

Jack Whittaker's book, on the other hand, which came out this year, has not a single illustration between the covers, contains no index or bibliography, and makes no attempt at estimating the numbers involved in the battle, or how they may have lined up.

Instead we are 'treated' - hardly the right word - to endless cliches, waffle and repetition, so much so that I gave up in disgust when he moved on the from the battle to the subsequent siege of the city of Megiddo.

If I had only bought the second book, I would have learnt no more about the battle than I already knew before I began reading, but Nelson's book is, thankfully, altogether a different story, and very much a pleasure.