Eric H. Cline is professor of classics and anthropology and director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at George Washington University. An active archaeologist, he has excavated and surveyed in Greece, Crete, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, and Jordan. His many books include From Eden to Exile: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Bible and The Trojan War: A Very Short Introduction. Twitter @digkabri
"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
"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
"Cline has created an excellent, concise survey of the major
players of the time, the latest archaeological developments, and
the major arguments, including his own theories, regarding the
nature of the collapse that fundamentally altered the area around
the Mediterranean and the Near East."---Evan M. Anderson, Library
Journal
"A remarkable book that brings forth not just a piece of history,
but also lessons from the past."---Mihai Andrei, ZME Science
"Fresh and engaging."---Andrew Robinson, Current World
Archaeology
"The 12th century BCE is one of the watershed eras of world
history. Empires and kingdoms that had dominated late Bronze Age
western Asia and the eastern Mediterranean collapsed."
*Choice*
"Cline explores a vast array of variables that could have led to
the disruption of the society of this era, including earthquakes,
famines, droughts, warfare, and, most notably, invasions by the
'Sea Peoples.'"
*Publishers Weekly*
"A detailed but accessible synthesis. . . . [O]ffers students and
the interested lay antiquarian a sense of the rich picture that is
emerging from debates among the ruins."---Scott McLemee, Inside
Higher Ed
"In this enjoyable new book, Eric H. Cline has set himself an
ambitious task: Not only must he educate a popular audience about
the wealth and power of the eastern Mediterranean civilizations of
the Bronze Age, he must then make his readers care that, some time
around the year 1200 B.C., these empires, kingdoms, and cities
suffered a series of cataclysms from which they never
recovered."---Susan Kristol, Weekly Standard
"[An] engaging book. . . . Cline builds a convincing case for his
theory over a long and absorbing tour of the Late Bronze
Age.”"---Josephine Quinn, London Review of Books
"A wonderful example of scholarship written for the non-expert.
Cline clearly pulls together the engaging story of the interactions
among the major empires of the Late Bronze Age and puts forth a
reasonable theory explaining why they seem to have evaporated as
quickly as moisture on a hot afternoon."---Fred Reiss, San Diego
Jewish World
"Cline's work reveals eerie parallels between the geopolitics of
the first years of 12th century B.C. and today's 21st century. 1177
B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed is history, but reads like a
good mystery novel. Cline draws readers into his tale, revealing
surprises throughout. It is all the more fascinating for being
true, and for its relevance to today's world."---Mark Lardas, Daily
News
"Cline has written one of this year's most interesting
books."---Jona Lendering, NRC Handelsblad
"Extremely valuable for scholars, yet . . . easily understandable
by general readers."---Richard A. Gabriel, Military History
Quarterly
"Cline is clearly in command of the textual record and his reading
of it is the book's real strength."---A. Bernard Knapp, History
Today
"Written in a lively, engaging style."---Michael McGaha, Middle
East Media and Book Reviews
"1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed is a thoughtful
analysis of one of the great mysteries of human history. . . .
Highly recommended."---James A. Cox, Midwest Book Review
"[T]his work masterfully incorporates the present state of research
into a welcome reevaluation of a period less known to the general
public, the crisis of Late Bronze Age civilization. . . . [E}ven
more brilliant is the spin on the similarities between the
predicament of this area three millennia ago and now."---Barbara
Cifola, American Historical Review
"There are few published titles which focus on the tumultuous
events that took place in the Eastern Mediterranean at
approximately 1200 BCE. . . . Cline's 1177 B.C.: The Year
Civilization Collapsed stands out among the rest as one of the best
and most thoroughly researched. . . . This book is presented as a
mystery novel. . . . One thing is for certain, once started, you
will not want to put it down."
*Ancient Origins*
"A gripping mystery story with clues to follow and evidence to
analyze."---SG, Ancient Egypt Magazine
"Essential."---Thomas F. Bertonneau, Brussels Journal
"Well-written, very fairly argued, and excellent value, it will set
the agenda for Late Bronze Age studies for some time to
come."---Peter Jones, Classics for All
"Fascinating. . . . [A]voids the tedium of so many academic
writers."---Bruce Beresford, filmmaker
"Eric H. Cline has written a work of great scholarship, but has
written in a manner so that the non-expert . . . can not only
understand, but also appreciate it."---Don Vincent, Open
History
"I don't know when I've appreciated a book as much as 1177 B.C. If
you enjoy learning, you will enjoy this book! Highly
recommended."---Thomas A. Timmes, UNRV History
"Cline expertly and briskly takes the reader through the power
politics of the fifteenth, fourteenth, and thirteenth centuries BC
with excursuses on important archaeological discoveries and
introductions for each of the major players. No reader with a pulse
could fail to be captivated by the details."---Dimitri Nakassis,
Mouseion
"Cline's book is something special in ancient history writing. . .
. The book is up to date in its research, covers a lot of ground,
is careful in its conclusions, and will be referred to and cited by
students of Aegean and eastern Mediterranean prehistory, discussed
by the scholarly community, as well as read by the interested
public. Cline has done a good job of bringing the Late Bronze Age
eastern Mediterranean to a very wide audience."---Guy D. Middleton,
American Journal of Archaeology
"Remarkably prescient. . . . [A] convincing case for the relevance
of ancient history to the modern world."
*Canadian Journal of History*
"The end of the Late Bronze Age, around the turn of the twelfth
century BCE, was a civilizational collapse similar to the much
better known fall of the Roman Empire seventeen centuries later. .
. . The causes of this collapse have been among the enduring
mysteries of ancient history and archaeology, a complicated
detective story for which Eric Cline deftly serves as guide. Cline
. . . presents for educated general readers a survey of the
evidence and scholarship concerning the end of the Late Bronze Age.
He also engagingly establishes the historical and geographical
context of the collapse, complete with a motley and compelling cast
of characters."---Matthew A. Sears, Canadian Journal of History
"This collapse has been a popular subject for scholars, not least
our author, for a very long time. Here he usefully assembles the
evidence and deduces that it was the very complexity of powers,
their interrelationships through trade or war, that brought about
the collapse, and he is probably right."---John Boardman, Common
Knowledge
"The most analytically satisfying, accessible, and of course
up-to-date treatment of one of the great enigmas of the ancient
world."---Christoph Bachhuber, Historian
"Cline admirably acknowledges areas of existing scholarly
controversy, while understandably emphasizing the consensus view in
order to maintain the flow of his narrative. . . . He has a firm
command of the textual, archaeological, and environmental evidence,
and brings together a wealth of recent scholarship in an accessible
form, a treatment which has been sorely lacking for this pivotal
period. . . . [A] fine book."---Erin Warford, European Legacy
"1177 BC still offers the best treatment of the subject that is
currently available. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend that
you do."---Josho Brouwers, Ancient World Magazine
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