After 1177 B.C.

The Survival of Civilizations

De: Eric H. Cline

Narrado por: John Chancer, Eric H. Cline

This audiobook narrated by John Chancer tells the gripping story of what happened after the Bronze Age collapsed—why some civilizations endured, why some gave way to new ones, and why some disappeared forever

Features Eric Cline’s FAQs as bonus content

At the end of Eric Cline's bestselling history 1177 B.C., many of the Late Bronze Age civilizations of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean lay in ruins, undone by invasion, revolt, natural disasters, famine, and the demise of international trade. An interconnected world that had boasted major empires and societies, relative peace, robust commerce, and monumental architecture was lost and the so-called First Dark Age had begun. Now, in After 1177 B.C., Cline tells the compelling story of what happened next, over four centuries, across the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean world. It is a story of resilience, transformation, and success, as well as failures, in an age of chaos and reconfiguration.

After 1177 B.C. tells how the collapse of powerful Late Bronze Age civilizations created new circumstances to which people and societies had to adapt. Those that failed to adjust disappeared from the world stage, while others transformed themselves, resulting in a new world order that included Phoenicians, Philistines, Israelites, Neo-Hittites, Neo-Assyrians, and Neo-Babylonians. Taking the story up to the resurgence of Greece marked by the first Olympic Games in 776 B.C., the book also describes how world-changing innovations such as the use of iron and the alphabet emerged amid the chaos.

Filled with lessons for today about why some societies survive massive shocks while others do not, After 1177 B.C. reveals why this period, far from being the First Dark Age, was a new age with new inventions and new opportunities.

©2024 Eric H. Cline (P)2024 Princeton University Press

fills in the blanks well

thoroughly researched and presented well. fifteen word minimum. one two three four five six seven

Good questions, regular answers

The stated aim of the book is to know why some societies coped and adapted to the collapse at the end of the Bronze Age, whilst others simply desappeared. The last chapter of the book discusses precisely that, whilst the epilogue addresses issues of nomenclature. The others chapters present different societies, how they lived before and after the collapse taking into account documentary and archaelogical evidence. These chapters were - in my view - marked by digressions, which made it difficult for me to focus. The author summarises a report by the United Nations on recent disasters, and how historical events could be better understood in the light of that report. On the whole, my impression is that the author's question or aim is relevant, but that the answer is lacking. One reason may be in the scarcity of information on so a remote period of time 12th century B.C.E. Another may be a lack of a stated methodology previous to the study itself: the conclusions are in fact the subjective opinion of the author. All in all, the book showed me that the period of late Bronze Age collapse is an interesting subject.

A good introduction to the beginning of the Uron Age

It brought the Iron Age beginnings into clearer focus and made me think of the parallels with today’s civilization

What's given credence and tends to go off-track

Throughout the book, Prof. Cline warns that ancient sources should be taken with a large grain of salt when extolling the virtues and actions of the various leaders and kings, EXCEPT when it comes to what he terms the Hebrew Bible - this he seemingly takes at face value.

Another point which may be just me, when telling about various and sundry kings, pharaohs, monuments, cities, etc. he constantly interrupts the narrative to give background information on who and when artifacts were discovered, what happened to the artifacts, where they're now kept and so on. This information lends itself to being put in footnotes so as not to disrupt the flow of the main narrative. Bad enough in print, very distracting in audible format. His editor should have stepped in.

Great content, poor narrator

The book is exactly what I’ve come to expect from Cline’s work. It’s accessible to the lay reader while also having plenty to chew on for the more experienced readers who are familiar with Near Eastern history and the Bronze Age Collapse. The content is great.

The narrator, however, I hope will never be used for books on the Near East again. He completely mispronounces the majority of the names of people and places in this book, despite the fact that I’m reasonably certain that Cline uses all the relevant diacritics to aid in pronunciation of these names—he does in his other books. It feels like the narrator has never heard any of these names and didn’t even try to learn to say them. His prosody isn’t great either. Also, the audio will randomly drop out for half a word here and there. I checked and it’s not my connection.

Overall, great book but I was very disappointed with the audio production.