Kenneth W. Harl

The barbarian nomads of the Eurasian steppes played a decisive role in world history, but their achievements have gone largely unnoticed.

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 enthralling new history, Professor Kenneth W. Harl draws on a lifetime of scholarship to vividly recreate the lives of these peoples from their beginnings to the early modern age.