Empires of the Steppes: A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilization

by Kenneth W. Harl

Overview

“A vibrant account of how roaming warlords shaped technology, religion and culture.” —The Guardian

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. 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 W. Harl vividly re-creates the lives and world of these often-forgotten peoples from their beginnings to the early modern age.

“From Attila to Genghis Khan via Prester John, and from the terracotta army of Qin Shi Huang to the walls that Alexander built to hold back the hosts of Gog and Magog, this is a history of epic scope.” —Martyn Rady, author of The Habsburgs

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781335146823
Publisher:	Hanover Square Press
Publication date:	10/29/2024
Edition description:	First Time Trade
Pages:	576
Sales rank:	825,758
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x 1.13(d)

About the Author

Kenneth W. Harl is Professor of Classical and Byzantine History at Tulane University, New Orleans. He is one of the world’s foremost experts on steppes civilizations, Roman history and numismatics, and has written extensively on Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Viking culture. Empires of the Steppes will be his first full-length narrative history book for the trade.

Editorial Reviews

05/15/2023

Tulane University historian Harl (The Ottoman Empire) examines in this comprehensive and accessible chronicle the substantial impact of nomadic peoples from the Eurasian Steppes on the development of modern civilization in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia from 3000 BCE to 1400 CE. Harl demonstrates how nomad invasions shaped history: the Hun invasions of the mid-400s drove Germanic tribes to seek new homes within the Roman Empire, leading to the toppling of Rome; Avar incursions into Byzantium in the 500s and 600s dramatically influenced the subsequent growth and spread of Islamic influence in the Middle East; and Genghis Khan and his descendants created a Mongol Empire that spread from Russia to Japan, drawing new borders in the Middle East and Asia that are still recognized today. While the steppe nomads could carve out an empire, it was not possible to rule from horseback, resulting in a pattern of conquest and collapse that defined Eurasian civilization for millennia; even the Age of European Discovery, Harl contends, can be attributed to the power and riches of the steppe empires that enticed travelers from the West. Marked by its meticulous detail and broad sweep, this is a major contribution to the understanding of how the modern world came to be. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"The author covers an impressive amount of ground… Harl observes that the nomads had a lasting effect on the world. The Mongols, for one, brought gunpowder and the arts of papermaking and printing to Europe, and Tamerlane inadvertently shifted the seat of power to the north and west of his homeland from Kiev to Moscow… An ambitious, impressively researched study that will interest advanced students of world history." —Kirkus Reviews

“Harl examines in this comprehensive and accessible chronicle the substantial impact of nomadic peoples from the Eurasian Steppes on the development of modern civilization in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia from 3000 BCE to 1400 CE. Harl demonstrates how nomad invasions shaped history: the Hun invasions of the mid-400s drove Germanic tribes to seek new homes within the Roman Empire, leading to the toppling of Rome; Avar incursions into Byzantium in the 500s and 600s dramatically influenced the subsequent growth and spread of Islamic influence in the Middle East; and Genghis Khan and his descendants created a Mongol Empire that spread from Russia to Japan, drawing new borders in the Middle East and Asia that are still recognized today. While the steppe nomads could carve out an empire, it was not possible to rule from horseback, resulting in a pattern of conquest and collapse that defined Eurasian civilization for millennia; even the Age of European Discovery, Harl contends, can be attributed to the power and riches of the steppe empires that enticed travelers from the West. Marked by its meticulous detail and broad sweep, this is a major contribution to the understanding of how the modern world came to be.”—Publishers Weekly

“From Attila to Genghis Khan via Prester John, and from the terracotta army of Qin Shi Huang to the walls that Alexander built to hold back the hosts of Gog and Magog, this is a history of epic scope. Bringing together the empires of the steppe land with the caravan cities of the Silk Road and imperial China, Kenneth W. Harl’s encyclopedic account spans two thousand years of Eurasian history. It is a reminder that what happens in Central Asia seldom stays there but can have consequences that turn the tide of human affairs.” —Martyn Rady, author of The Habsburgs


“Harl has written a terrific, fast-pasted, history of the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppes. It is full of colour and crackles with vitality – one almost feels the thundering of horses’ hooves. One thing is certain, Harl leaves little doubt that civilization is not just built from brick walls and marble edifices, but from canvas tents and felt saddlecloths too.”—Professor Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Cardiff University, author of Persians: The Age of the Great Kings

“[A] wonderful addition to your library....When you read [Empires of the Steppes], even if you're interested and have read a lot about this subject, you're going to marvel at [Harl's] ability to dredge up even things like personal names of some of these early leaders, things that were considered legendary... I am overwhelmed at the comprehensiveness of [Empires of the Steppes]."—Dan Carlin, host of Hardcore History

"There is no doubting the range and depth of Harl’s knowledge of steppe history."—The Spectator

"A vibrant account of how roaming warlords shaped technology, religion and culture… Much of this book is energetically written traditional history, describing battles between kings …Harl’s exhaustively researched book will ensure they rejoin the narrative of world history."—The Guardian

From the Publisher

2023-04-25
Academic survey of the horse-based cultures of the Eurasian plains, which often rode out to conquer neighboring lands.

Harl, a professor of classical and Byzantine history, took the occasion of a sabbatical canceled by the pandemic to write “a sweeping narrative covering forty-five centuries.” This book is just that, and though the text is occasionally labored, the author covers an impressive amount of ground. His early pages deal with the proto–Indo-European peoples who ranged out of the steppes to settle in places as far-flung as Ireland and western China, the latter known to us through remnants of an ancient language called Tocharian as well as DNA analysis that shows a blend of European and Siberian origins. A succession of nomadic peoples—Scythian, Parthian, Mongol, Turkic, Khazar—followed over the centuries, many of them using their military advantages (including the innovations of war carriages and massed cavalry) to seize territory as distant from their epicenter as the outskirts of Paris and the whole of India. Still, as Harl writes, their successes were often short-lived. When Attila died in what is now Budapest after having “overindulged in a wedding celebration to his newest wife,” the vast empire that he built fell apart. Only Genghis Khan’s lasted much beyond his life, while his descendant Kublai Khan succeeded in unifying China after overthrowing the Song dynasty—though he frittered away his energies by trying to absorb the jungles of Southeast Asia, which were not conducive to Mongol cavalry tactics. For all the evanescence of the conquests by people like the Uzbek hero (and mass murderer) Tamerlane, Harl observes that the nomads had a lasting effect on the world. The Mongols, for one, brought gunpowder and the arts of papermaking and printing to Europe, and Tamerlane inadvertently shifted the seat of power to the north and west of his homeland from Kiev to Moscow.

An ambitious, impressively researched study that will interest advanced students of world history.

Kirkus Reviews