Railways Along the Nile and the Renaissance of Modern Egypt 1798-1879

On July 1, 1798, when Napoleon Bonaparte landed in Alexandria, Egypt was in a state of suspended stagnation. But the cultural clash between West and East sparked Egypt’s transformation into a modern state—and the Egyptian railways played a key role in this transformation.

Juxtaposing history, narrative, maps, art, and music, Railways Along the Nile and the Renaissance of Modern Egypt (1798–1879) relates the fascinating story of Egypt’s rapid advancement. Looking well beyond the building of the railroads themselves, this story includes intriguing historical, social, political, economic, and artistic aspects that surrounded the development of the railways and helped shape Egypt’s modern identity.

Step back to the time of the pharaohs to discover why the relationship between the Egyptian people and their leaders made the railway project successful.

Learn how nineteenth-century geographic and scientific exploration, colonization, and commerce fed foreign interest in Egypt and created the impetus for building the railway infrastructure.

Make the connection between “Egyptomania” in Europe, the Egyptian railways, and Egypt’s status as the “Florida of prosperous Victorians.”

Final chapters introducing exotic locomotive designs and reports by the Western press provide unique insight, making this book an invaluable resource for understanding the forces behind Egypt’s emergence into the modern world.

Osama Ettouney is a professor emeritus in the Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Department at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, where he served as the chair from 1995 to 2010.

Born in Egypt, he earned his BS in mechanical engineering from the Cairo Institute of Technology before coming to the United States in 1979 to pursue graduate work. He holds an MS in mechanical engineering from MIT and a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Ettouney's interests range from engineering and the impact engineering and technology have on society to teaching and writing, both fiction and nonfiction He is the author of Portraits from Cairo of the 1970s, published in 2012, and his most recent work is Railways Along the Nile and the Renaissance of Modern Egypt (1798-1879).