Book Review: After 1177BC by Eric H Cline

Last year I read Eric H Cline's 1177 BC, which surveyed several civilizations across the Mediterranean and Aegean that were thriving up until around, well, 1177BC. Right around that time, most of those civilizations collapsed. We don't know for sure why, or if they were for the same reasons all around, but culprits include climate change/drought, earthquakes, and the Sea Peoples.

The follow-up, After 1177 BC, picks up after the general collapse to tell the stories of how (or if) those civilizations rebounded. As set up in the introduction, this is possible to different degrees depending on the civilization - some (like the Egyptians) continued with written records, while for others (like the Greeks) we have black holes of knowledge spanning centuries (which we commonly refer to as "dark ages", even though there's no evidence that the Greeks themselves were living in a "lesser than" society all that time).

As fascinating as the subject is, it can definitely be hard to keep all the details straight when doing deep-dives into multiple different cultures. It's also a more difficult task than the first book - while all of the civilizations 1177 BC were headed in the same direction (general collapse), in After 1177 BC the societies are all headed in different directions, which can make it hard to remember who rose, who died out, and who turned into completely different societies.

So very well-researched and -put together book, but not as enjoyable a read as the first one. Six out of ten hot dogs.