1177 B.C. (Revised and Updated)

The Year Civilization Collapsed

De: Eric H. Cline

Narrado por: Eric H. Cline

This audiobook narrated by acclaimed archaeologist and best-selling author Eric Cline offers a breathtaking account of how the collapse of an ancient civilized world ushered in the first Dark Ages.

In 1177 BC, marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy defeated them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. Eric Cline tells the gripping story of how the end was brought about by multiple interconnected failures, ranging from invasion and revolt to earthquakes, drought, famine, and the cutting of international trade routes. Bringing to life a vibrant multicultural world, he draws a sweeping panorama of the empires of the age and shows that it may have been their very interdependence that hastened their dramatic collapse. Now revised and updated, 1177 B.C. sheds light on the complex ties that gave rise to, and eventually destroyed, the flourishing civilizations of the Late Bronze Age - and set the stage for the emergence of classical Greece and, ultimately, our world today.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Eric H. Cline (P)2021 Princeton University Press

Reseñas de la Crítica

"The memorable thing about Cline's book is the strangely recognizable picture he paints of this very faraway time.... It was as globalized and cosmopolitan a time as any on record, albeit within a much smaller cosmos. The degree of interpenetration and of cultural sharing is astonishing." (Adam Gopnik, New Yorker)

"Engaging.... [An] absorbing tour of the Late Bronze Age." (Josephine Quinn, London Review of Books)

"A fascinating look at the Late Bronze Age, proving that whether for culture, war, economic fluctuations or grappling with technological advancement, the conundrums we face are never new, but merely renewed for a modern age." (Larry Getlen, New York Post)

Listened like a textbook

It was very interesting but I was unable to grasp the grandeur of the age. This was like listening to a college textbook. I can forgive the performance since it was done by the author during COVID but his oratory skills kept me from being able to grasp what he was trying to convey. Maybe I missed something. I would listen again but don’t think I can make it through 10 hours of that. There were so many dates and people mentioned but I couldn’t grasp the context or follow the interconnectedness of the region or rulers or the timeline. It bounced back and forth thru centuries and was easy to get lost. I was hoping that the foundation was being laid for him to expound in greater depth on what he and his colleagues feel happened. His conclusions were glazed over compared to the length of the audiobook.

Nothing felt connected in anyway. He would tell a good story on a disagreement between rulers and what happened but how does that play into the grand scheme of this text. It was very dry with a ton of information but no real story was being told. This was so close to being great. If this was a college course I could have attended this probably would’ve been outstanding. But this is an audio book which must stand on its own. My review is all over the place like this book. This felt like a reading of a textbook. I am intrigued by the information laid out and will look for someone else’s work that can expound on this. I wish I could have enjoyed this. Maybe I’ll give it another listen in a couple of years.

A cautionary tale for our times

I've always been interested in ancient history, and this book gathers together a lot of scattered material. It's well-researched, up-to-date and takes all theories into account. Dr. Cline provides a thorough synthesis of many factors that contributed to the collapse of the Bronze Age. We should take note of the parallels of our own situation.

As a further note, Dr. Cline narrates his own book, a great improvement on Andy Caploe, who narrated the first edition. However, he speaks slowly, and somebody clearly has told him to ENUNCIATE every word. It ends up sounding stilted and doesn't flow naturally. But as I said, vastly superior to Andy Caploe.

Fascinating and Prescient

Well worth the listen.

The section on Complexity Theory/Science is a great primer for that topic, though I would suggest that the analogies used by the author are often not examples of complexity, so much as complicatedness - he even conflated the two terms on occasion.

Additionally, that section would benefit greatly from a review of Resilience Theory/Science, which is a branch of Complexity Theory that has developed much more thoroughly through the field of Ecology from the 80s-teens with limited spillover into other fields as of yet. The system collapse of the late Bronze Age fits the Adaptive Cycle model beautifully.

Fascinating and ominous.

The latte bronze age empires participated in a global system, and the situation at the time of collapse has alarming parallels to the present.

Very well told.

Some questions don’t have answers

This is a great summary of the end of the Bronze Age and our current understanding of how it ended. The review of the current science is complete and fascinating.
The author/reader is more than adequate. Like many professional readers, it takes a while to get used to his style, but there’s no reason not to listen to the whole book with him as the reader.
I’ll be picking up the subsequent volume to hear the next part of the story.

Authors Should Not Read Their Own Works

I am a great fan of Dr. Kline. I have this book in print format. I have watched his YouTube lecture, and I know he is a dynamic, engaging speaker. As a professor myself, however, I can attest to the wide gulf that separates speaking ability and reading aloud ability. I listened to about 10 minutes of this audiobook, and I had to quit due to Dr. Kline's painfully slow, monotone performance. This is unfortunate because the book is excellent. If ever there was a need for a guest reader, this is it.

Read don’t listen

The material is excellent. The narration is not. The only advantage to the author providing the narration is knowing all words are pronounced correctly. The primary disadvantage in this case is Cline pauses after every third word so you get no flow. However, the scholarship is excellent and comprehensive.

Stick with it

This is a very interesting book that I found rather challenging to follow because of the ancient names. I don't think it would have been easier to follow in written form. Besides, if I'd read it myself, I'd never know how to pronounce 'Suppiluliuma.' On the other hand, I was able to follow the gist which paid off at the end when the discussion turned to systems theory. I'm not a historian; I'm a system engineer. Dr Cline brings it all together in a coherent explanation -- challenging his own thinking with repeated "so what" tests. It's worth hanging in through all those difficult names.

New parents will attest that reading out loud is hard if you aren't used to it. Dr Cline doesn't start out reading as smoothly as a professional voice actor. On the other hand, he improves as he goes either from direction or just experience and feedback. So the first part of part 1 is a little bit rough, but by part 2 you get the benefit of listening to a fluent narrator passionate about the subject. And it's actually fun hearing Suppiluliuma flow off his tongue like it's "Smith" or "Jones".

Fascinating deep dive

The author makes his way through the interconnected Bronze Age civilizations, drawing parallels and referencing current research in very interesting and relevant ways. It is a heady topic, but Eric does well to make it interesting. I appreciate how he is scientifically careful in citing research, as some is well proven, some is hypothesis or limited studies, and some are just interesting ideas.

Skip to the last chapter or two.

All the excitement of a Great Courses lecture and the production values of a home office podcast. Most of the book is basically foot notes abs references to the end. Basically reads like a really long journal article. The author reads it and it’s not very easy to listen to…which is kinda the point here. SoMe interesting bits nonetheless. A good $5 purchase perhaps.