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EMPIRES OF THE STEPPES

Name: EMPIRES OF THE STEPPES
Author: Kenneth W. Harl
ISBN: 9781335429278

A HISTORY OF THE NOMADIC TRIBES WHO SHAPED CIVILIZATION

by Kenneth W. Harl ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2023

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

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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.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2023

ISBN: 9781335429278

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Hanover Square Press

Review Posted Online: April 25, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023

Categories:

HISTORY | ANCIENT | MILITARY | WORLD | GENERAL HISTORY

A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN TWELVE SHIPWRECKS

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A HISTORY OF THE WORLD IN TWELVE SHIPWRECKS

by David Gibbins ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 2, 2024

Gibbins combines historical knowledge with a sense of adventure, making this book a highly enjoyable package.

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A popular novelist turns his hand to historical writing, focusing on what shipwrecks can tell us.

There’s something inherently romantic about shipwrecks: the mystery, the drama of disaster, the prospect of lost treasure. Gibbins, who’s found acclaim as an author of historical fiction, has long been fascinated with them, and his expertise in both archaeology and diving provides a tone of solid authority to his latest book. The author has personally dived on more than half the wrecks discussed in the book; for the other cases, he draws on historical records and accounts. “Wrecks offer special access to history at all…levels,” he writes. “Unlike many archaeological sites, a wreck represents a single event in which most of the objects were in use at that time and can often be closely dated. What might seem hazy in other evidence can be sharply defined, pointing the way to fresh insights.” Gibbins covers a wide variety of cases, including wrecks dating from classical times; a ship torpedoed during World War II; a Viking longship; a ship of Arab origin that foundered in Indonesian waters in the ninth century; the Mary Rose, the flagship of the navy of Henry VIII; and an Arctic exploring vessel, the Terror (for more on that ship, read Paul Watson’s Ice Ghost). Underwater excavation often produces valuable artifacts, but Gibbins is equally interested in the material that reveals the society of the time. He does an excellent job of placing each wreck within a broader context, as well as examining the human elements of the story. The result is a book that will appeal to readers with an interest in maritime history and who would enjoy a different, and enlightening, perspective.

Gibbins combines historical knowledge with a sense of adventure, making this book a highly enjoyable package.

Pub Date: April 2, 2024

ISBN: 9781250325372

Page Count: 304

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024

Categories:

HISTORY | GENERAL HISTORY | NATURE | WORLD | GENERAL NONFICTION

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THE BOOK OF ALL BOOKS

by Roberto Calasso translated by Tim Parks ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 16, 2021

An erudite guide to the biblical world.

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Revelations from the Old Testament.

“The Bible has no rivals when it comes to the art of omission, of not saying what everyone would like to know,” observes Calasso (1941-2021), the acclaimed Italian publisher, translator, and explorer of myth, gods, and sacred ritual. In this probing inquiry into biblical mysteries, the author meditates on the complexities and contradictions of key events and figures. He examines the “enigmatic nature” of original sin in Genesis, an anomaly occurring in no other creation myth; God’s mandate of circumcision for all Jewish men; and theomorphism in the form of Adam: a man created in the image of the god who made him. Among the individuals Calasso attends to in an abundantly populated volume are Saul, the first king of Israel; the handsome shepherd David, his successor; David’s son Solomon, whose relatively peaceful reign allowed him “to look at the world and study it”; Moses, steeped in “law and vengeance,” who incited the slaughter of firstborn sons; and powerful women, including the Queen of Sheba (“very beautiful and probably a witch”), Jezebel, and the “prophetess” Miriam, Moses’ sister. Raging throughout is Yahweh, a vengeful God who demands unquestioned obedience to his commandments. “Yahweh was a god who wanted to defeat other gods,” Calasso writes. “I am a jealous God,” Yahweh proclaims, “who punishes the children for the sins of their fathers, as far as the third and fourth generations.” Conflicts seemed endless: During the reigns of Saul and David, “war was constant, war without and war within.” Terse exchanges between David and Yahweh were, above all, “military decisions.” David’s 40-year reign was “harrowing and glorious,” marked by recurring battles with the Philistines. Calasso makes palpable schisms and rivalries, persecutions and retributions, holocausts and sacrifices as tribal groups battled one another to form “a single entity”—the people of Israel.

An erudite guide to the biblical world.