A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, Vol. 1: Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire

If you want to learn about the dynamic relationship between argricultural civilizations and pastoralist civilizations, read this book. It does leave some questions unanswered though. Such as, why did new tribes replace old tribes (ex: the Goths in Hungary, being pushed out by the Huns, who were pushed out by the Magyars)? What were the relative populations of the time? What was the relative demand for the goods of the steepe peoples? What was the trade balance between steppe and agricultural peoples?

Despite the questions, the book was worth the read.


A waste of paper, time and money   March 12, 2001
 48 out of 53 found this review helpful

As an archaeologist working on the archaeology of North East Asia, I found this book a very big disappointment. Then again what should I expect from a historian whose speciality is the 18th and 19th century history of Russia?

The author draws heavily on secondary works in English, German, French and Russian. Instead of depending on those, he should have gone directly to the archaeological site reports and the historical annals themselves. Its also sad to see a synthesis on Russia and Central Asia that relies heavily on the works of English language scholars and ignoring the Russian and Mongolian language scholars. In terms of some of his English secondary sources, ones like Davis-Kimball et al. (NOMADS OF THE EURASIAN STEPPE) and Barfield's PERILOUS FRONTIER are still in print and available from AMAZON.COM.

Production values in this book are also uneven. The photographic reproductions in many cases are also poorly scanned copies (see for example p. 53, 214 in the paperback version). The publisher should have done a better job.

My advice: you can do a lot better (try the two suggestions above)


Superb   August 14, 2000
 10 out of 18 found this review helpful

The life and times of Chingghis Khan were brilliantly written and I could recommend this book for the last 2 chapters alone. The rest of it was very good. Be prepared to re-read chapters if, like me, you weren't exposed to these regions in history. There are elements here important to scholars of China and Byzantium as well.


Simply fascinating   July 28, 2000
 9 out of 11 found this review helpful

In these days of specialist books it is virtually impossible to find scholarly works that cover a broad spectrum of history. Inner Eurasian pre-history spans the history of a large part of mankind itself. It is home of the Indo-Europeans, a linguistic group that spread in pre-historic times to India, Iran, Asia Minor and Europe.

The impact of the warrior tribes from the Steppe lands - such as the Huns, the Goths, Vandals, Alans and the all-important Mongols - shattered some of the world's greatest empires. David Christian does a marvelous job explaining it all to us, while keeping the scholarly element intact throughout. It is a book I would recommend wholeheartedly to anyone interested in the general history of mankind.


A Delight to read   April 18, 2000
 1 out of 3 found this review helpful

This work is authoritive, detailed and were needed succinct and to the point with excellent references for further investigation. The use of charts, and illustrations give the detail needed to illustrate the information being refered too. I am looking forward to Volume 2 with great anticipation