Brian Fagan is the most celebrated and widely read popular writer on archaeology in the United States. Emeritus professor of anthropology at University of California Santa Barbara, he is author of dozens of popular books, many of the leading textbooks, several reference volumes, as well as numerous scholarly works on archaeology in all of its facets. Fagan regularly appears as a commentator or writer in media programs on archaeology. His account of early Egyptology, The Rape of the Nile, is now in its third edition and is regarded as a classic of the genre. He also wrote the acclaimed Egypt of the Pharaohs for the National Geographic Society. Fagan has won numerous awards for his writing and teaching from professional archaeological organizations.