Empires of the Steppes

De: Kenneth Harl

Narrado por: Corey M. Snow

A narrative history of how Attila, Genghis Khan and the so-called barbarians of the steppes shaped world civilization.

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 W. Harl vividly re-creates 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.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Kenneth Harl (P)2022 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

Reseñas de la Crítica

"In an authoritative bass voice, Corey Snow splendidly narrates Harl's account of the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian Steppe.... Snow's resonant voice has a slight raspy quality that is quite easy to understand. He never rushes the text and sounds confident and appropriately expressive throughout the production." (AudioFIle)

Great book, terrible narrator

I love the lectures upon which this book is based so was very excited to listen, but the narration is so bad I had to stop. I’ll just read it myself. Wish Dr. Harl had just read it himself, he is much more interesting to listen to!!

Great summary of a wide range of history

Dr. Harl does a wonderful job summarizing the history of Nomadic peoples of Europe and Asia into large beats and presented in a narrative form. Great introduction to several distinct cultural legacies linked by geography and lifestyles.

Interesting read

Fascinating stories, well organized. I heard the author's interview with Dan Carlin and had to buy the book. if you enjoyed Wrath of the Khans, then you'll enjoy this book as well.

Knowledge of This World

I learned a great deal about the Empires of the Steppes and all that they contributed to our world.

The all encompassing narrative of the topic

This is an incredible book and 109% exactly what I was looking for. I waxed through 2 other books trying to learn about the central steppes and was thoroughly disappointed until I came across this one. What a wonderful and expansive discussion of this topic.

A constant repetition of Xanadu’s origin

…Became very annoying in an otherwise good overview of steppe people and their impact on history, economics, warfare, and culture.

Kenneth Harl Should Narrate

Would have been way better if Kenneth Harl narrated. A good book either way and informative on some lesser know topics

Centuries of history crammed into one book

Empires of the Steppes is a comprehensive survey of centuries of steppe nomads and the empires they built and of the ones they collapsed. Admittedly, this would be a very difficult history to write given the wide scope of land, time, and peoples. The author does a decent job. Multiple times I went to other sources to get more information— so it will definitely pique your interest.
The reader is annoying. Like so many of the readers on this app, the narrator seems to ignore punctuation and lacks rhythm.

A good review of the history, an inept narrator

This is a good review of a region and its history that doesn't get enough attention in America.

The narrator has a third grader's level of reading skill. He gets English words mostly correct, but is an embarrassment to Hukd on Fonix whenever he ventures out into any other language or culture.

Firehose of out-of-context facts

This book is overstuffed with information, most of it interesting, even fascinating, but there’s no scene-setting, no apparent structure and no narrative arc. The narrative ranges across cultures and centuries, backwards and forwards in time, with no effort to explain how it all fits together. It’s like an incomplete draft of a really fine book, about four-fifths of the way to superb, but you really miss the missing fifth. Referring to Wikipedia as you listen helps.