After 1177 B. C. The survival of civilizations

Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Historian Cline follows up 1177 B.C., his bestselling study of the end of the Bronze Age, with a sweeping account of what came next. Picking up immediately after a "megadrought" resulted in broken trade networks, mass migrations, and political crises that caused the collapse of the ancient Mediterranean's interconnected civilization, Cline moves on to recount how various remnants adapted. In Egypt, the reduction of the Nile's flow due to drought caused economic slowdown and ultimately a loss of military might, leading to an era of coups and intrigues. Meanwhile, Greece underwent the collapse of the palace system that epitomized Homeric society; Cline notes that its demise "may have actually freed" regular people "from a tremendous burden." The Assyrians and Babylonians proved more resilient; hit by "drought, famine, and plague," they repeatedly bounced back. But it's the innovative Phoenicians, Cline suggests, who really flourished in a freer, less hierarchical world order. Arising on the Levantine coast in a post-Hittite power vacuum, the Phoenicians were a collection of allied city-states who launched themselves west, establishing trading colonies across the Mediterranean. They brought with them a standardized alphabet (the ancestor of nearly all alphabetic scripts used today) and a game-changing metallurgic invention from Cyprus, iron. Cline distills an immense amount of material into a highly readable narrative that in its conclusion draws startling parallels with contemporary climate change. It's a dizzying feat of scholarship. (Apr.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

Why do some societies survive massive shocks while others fold? In an age of global crisis (pandemics, climate change, wars), Cline (classics and anthropology, George Washington Univ.) looks back on an earlier era when many of the same things happened: the late 1100s BCE. Following his study 1177 B.C., Cline looks at eight societies that either made it through the Iron Age or didn't. By 1177 BCE, the Bronze Age civilizations had all waned. The stressors: drought, plague, economic decline, and barbarian invasion. Some societies, including the Mycenaeans and the Minoans, never recovered; others, notably Assyria and Babylonia, did. New states joined in a new power constellation, and the Mediterranean became a Phoenician lake. Technological changes occurred in the appearance of alphabets and iron smelting. Cline mixes archaeology, history, climate science, and social theory in this insightful work that never pushes evidence beyond its weight. The book closes with an analytic chapter that systematizes its historical details in the context of the relatively new field of resilience theory. VERDICT The topic may appear arcane, but Cline makes it relevant and tells a compelling, original, and fruitful story. This title has significant meaning in an overstressed world. For more than just history buffs.--David Keymer

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

A brilliant survey of the ancient world's recovery from a series of crises. In 1177 B.C., classicist Cline described the cataclysmic end of the Bronze Age, its civilizations undone by war, climate change, famine, and other ailments. In this follow-up, he examines eight civilizations of the ancient eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, including the Greeks, Egyptians, and "Neo-Assyrians," to show different responses to those crises. This period is often termed "the first dark age," but that designation is useful in only a few cases. For example, the Egyptians, beset by invasions and a decline in imperial power, turned inward, "hobbled by a government riddled with intrigue, not to mention problems with succession and rivalries that occasionally resulted in two, three, and sometimes even four rulers in different parts of Egypt at the same time." Having lost nearly half their population, the Greeks rebuilt, while the ancient Israelites took advantage of the power vacuum to dominate the region that forms the present country and beyond. Cline is as interested in continuities as in ruptures. He discounts the idea of a "Dorian invasion" of Greece, for example, to look at survivals from the doomed Mycenaean civilization, including the belief in gods such as Zeus. Cline also explores historical moments seldom mentioned outside the professional literature, such as the coalition of kings that allied against the Assyrian king Shalmaneser--unsuccessfully, as it happens, allowing him to expand his empire. The author writes with an eye to the present and future as well as the past, applying the characteristics of the "winners" among these societies to draw lessons for what may be hard times to come, given war, disease, and, yes, climate change. One lesson: "Be as self-sufficient as possible, but do call on friends for assistance when needed." Another: "Keep the working class happy." A superb work to interest history buffs of every period. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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