A narrative history of how Attila, Genghis Khan and the so-called
barbarians of the steppes shaped world civilization. For readers of The
Storm before the Storm, The Silk Road and Ten Caesars.
The barbarian nomads of the Eurasian steppes have played a decisive role
in world history, but their achievements have gone largely unnoticed.
These nomadic tribes have produced some of the world's greatest
conquerors: Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, among others.
Their deeds still resonate today. Indeed, these nomads built
long-lasting empires, facilitated the first global trade of the Silk
Road and disseminated religions, technology, knowledge and goods of
every description that enriched and changed the lives of so many across
Europe, China and the Middle East. From a single region emerged a great
many peoples--the Huns, the Mongols, the Magyars, the Turks, the
Xiongnu, the Scythians, the Goths--all of whom went on to profoundly and
irrevocably shape the modern world.
In this new, comprehensive history, Professor Kenneth Harl vividly
recreates the lives and world of these often-forgotten peoples from
their beginnings to the early modern age. Their brutal struggle to
survive on the steppes bred a resilient, pragmatic people ever ready to
learn from their more advanced neighbors. In warfare, they dominated the
battlefield for over fifteen hundred years. Under charismatic rulers,
they could topple empires and win their own.
