What do you think?
Rate this book
Collapse of the Bronze Age: The Story of Greece, Troy, Israel, Egypt, and the Peoples of the Sea
His Majesty being powerful, his heart stout, none could stand before him.. All his territory was ablaze with fire, and he burned every foriegn country with his hot breath. Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II.The bowmen of His Majesty spent six hours of destruction among them. They were delivered to the sword. Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah.May my father know the enemy ships came. My cities were burned and evil things were done in my country. King of the city of Ugarit to the king of Cyprus. Since there is famine in your house we will starve to death...The living soul of your country you will see no longer. To a Hittite offical stationed in Ugarit.Israel is laid waste, his seed is not. Pharaoh Merneptah. Pharaoh's chariots and his army He cast into the Sea...Book of Exodus.Egypt was adrift and every man was thrown out of his right. There was no leader for years..Pharaoh Ramesses IV.As they (the Sea Peoples) were coming forward toward Egypt, their hearts relying upon their hands, a net was prepared for them....My strong arm has overthrown those who came to exalt themselves. Pharaoh Ramesses III. [of the Greeks] These were destroyed by their own hands and passed to the dank house of chill Hades. Greek writer Hesiod.Returning to Luxor, Egypt, by Nile ship. The author has visited many of the significant archaeological sites mentioned in this book.Front cover, top, Troy VI by Lloyd K. Townsend, bottom, Pharaoh Thotmose IV.
434 pages, Paperback
First published June 21, 2001
7 people are currently reading
187 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 19, 2016
I want to open by saying I'm not a scholar of the Bronze Age, rather a student of history in different eras who's expanded his interest into the Bronze Age. I'm hoping that my review conveys the assessment of a student rather than a scholar.
I want to open by saying this book has bounced between 2 and 4 stars for me in reading it. My biggest draw in calling this a 2 star book is Mr (Dr?, Professor?) Robbins spends a lot of time presenting Hittite (in particular) and other people with limited maps or timelines throughout this book. While not critical it is when reading about ancient times and understanding which leader of an empire is impacting another leader. While Mr. Robbins and other scholars may keep their timeline straight and know the locations and people associated with them, other readers don't always have that advantage and as I've said in numerous other reviews of history books, provide the reader more visual information (maps and in this case time lines). I say this because in reading through this book I've spent a small amount of time querying the internet on different leaders and people (I'm no expert now but do feel more confident that I was entering)/
On the plus side I truly have to commend Mr. Robbins on his presentation of material; it's very persuasive and presented in a logical way. When presenting the case for each of the people, Mr. Robbins does a great job giving us the situation and the supporting evidence (that he's presenting) and providing a logical path for the reader to follow. Something I also observed was that the more I read of the book, the easier it was to understand Mr. Robbins and what he was writing about.
A relative neutral piece (to me) was who is Manuel Robbins? We're not provided with a biography or credentials of any sort. Instead we're given an individual who's presenting their case for the Collapse of the Bronze Age which is refreshing since they're not belittling readers with a degree. Instead we have Manuel telling us a story as they see and understand it and what they believe happens; this is something fairly pure in this society anymore where people are prone to using degrees to make their point. What we can determine from their work is that Manuel Robbins has studied about the Hittite Empire and has a lot of knowledge of the other empires that "touched" the Hittites, particularly as the Hittite Empire (and the Bronze Age) collapsed.
The bottom line: nicely done, possibly a little dry but with good thought; worth my time.
I want to open by saying this book has bounced between 2 and 4 stars for me in reading it. My biggest draw in calling this a 2 star book is Mr (Dr?, Professor?) Robbins spends a lot of time presenting Hittite (in particular) and other people with limited maps or timelines throughout this book. While not critical it is when reading about ancient times and understanding which leader of an empire is impacting another leader. While Mr. Robbins and other scholars may keep their timeline straight and know the locations and people associated with them, other readers don't always have that advantage and as I've said in numerous other reviews of history books, provide the reader more visual information (maps and in this case time lines). I say this because in reading through this book I've spent a small amount of time querying the internet on different leaders and people (I'm no expert now but do feel more confident that I was entering)/
On the plus side I truly have to commend Mr. Robbins on his presentation of material; it's very persuasive and presented in a logical way. When presenting the case for each of the people, Mr. Robbins does a great job giving us the situation and the supporting evidence (that he's presenting) and providing a logical path for the reader to follow. Something I also observed was that the more I read of the book, the easier it was to understand Mr. Robbins and what he was writing about.
A relative neutral piece (to me) was who is Manuel Robbins? We're not provided with a biography or credentials of any sort. Instead we're given an individual who's presenting their case for the Collapse of the Bronze Age which is refreshing since they're not belittling readers with a degree. Instead we have Manuel telling us a story as they see and understand it and what they believe happens; this is something fairly pure in this society anymore where people are prone to using degrees to make their point. What we can determine from their work is that Manuel Robbins has studied about the Hittite Empire and has a lot of knowledge of the other empires that "touched" the Hittites, particularly as the Hittite Empire (and the Bronze Age) collapsed.
The bottom line: nicely done, possibly a little dry but with good thought; worth my time.
February 28, 2015
Years ago a book club offered scads of brand new volumes on the Bronze age, all for very reasonable prices. Employed in a high tech company at the time, I indulged my curiosity and bought scads of these books. From my seat here, on the bookshelf above me, the old titles stand out: Ebla; the Minoan World; The Hittites; Assyria; A history of Israel; The Mycenaean World; The Origins of War - all of which are somewhat dated now. This book, "Collapse of the Bronze age," more than scratches an itch from long ago. It brings together all of those volumes, moves the stories up to date - and more. In addition, this is my first Kindle and I have never read hard history on a reader before, but the many images and detailed maps are easy to view, compare, annotate and magnify. This book also reads like a detective novel, which is another notable quality, especially in historical writers. I will definitely read and refer to this more than once or twice. Fascinating.
June 29, 2021
Very well written and accurate book especially considering from what I can find he is a self published author. I do wish I could find more information on him and possibly on other books that he's written. I highly recommend this book to anyone curious about the bronze age.
March 23, 2013
Very nice overview. Written in clear, short declarative sentences. It presents various interpretations of the existing archeological and historical evidence and the author's view on the subject but the author never flat out dismisses contrasting views.
For those unfamiliar with the subject, roughly 700 or so years before classical Greece, that is about 1200 B.C. There was an extensive network of civilizations and empires in the area from Greece, the eastern Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. This was called the Bronze Age. Something happened and it all fell apart. Bronze depended on imported copper and tin from far away areas. After the collapse, iron was used, because it is relatively common everywhere and no long distance trade was needed. We think iron is an advance, but early cast iron was inferior to cast bronze. Only the later development of forged steel was an improvement. So with the social collapse, trade collapsed, technology collapse, writing disappeared most places and there was a period of dark ages similar to that after the collapse of the Roman Empire. During this transition things like the Trojan war and Exodus and the founding of Israel occurred. It is a very interesting period and the book covers it well.
For those unfamiliar with the subject, roughly 700 or so years before classical Greece, that is about 1200 B.C. There was an extensive network of civilizations and empires in the area from Greece, the eastern Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. This was called the Bronze Age. Something happened and it all fell apart. Bronze depended on imported copper and tin from far away areas. After the collapse, iron was used, because it is relatively common everywhere and no long distance trade was needed. We think iron is an advance, but early cast iron was inferior to cast bronze. Only the later development of forged steel was an improvement. So with the social collapse, trade collapsed, technology collapse, writing disappeared most places and there was a period of dark ages similar to that after the collapse of the Roman Empire. During this transition things like the Trojan war and Exodus and the founding of Israel occurred. It is a very interesting period and the book covers it well.
August 20, 2009
The book is a good introduction to the Bronze Age, but a bit dry.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews