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The March of the Barbarians
Mongol conquests & empire by Genghis Khan & his decendants.
The Steppes of Asia
The Emperors on Horseback
The Book of the Kuriltai
The Book of the Western March
The Book of the Three Great Ladies
The Book of Tsar Batu
The Book of Kublai Khan
The Consequences
...of All the Russias
Afterword
The Sources
The Mongolian Sagas
The Chinese Histories & Travelers
The Persian & Arabic Chroniclers
The Eastern Christians
The Standard History
General
The Transliteration
Index
The Steppes of Asia
The Emperors on Horseback
The Book of the Kuriltai
The Book of the Western March
The Book of the Three Great Ladies
The Book of Tsar Batu
The Book of Kublai Khan
The Consequences
...of All the Russias
Afterword
The Sources
The Mongolian Sagas
The Chinese Histories & Travelers
The Persian & Arabic Chroniclers
The Eastern Christians
The Standard History
General
The Transliteration
Index
392 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1940
About the author
Harold Lamb
126 books167 followersHarold Albert Lamb was an American historian, screenwriter, short story writer, and novelist.
Born in Alpine, New Jersey, he attended Columbia University, where his interest in the peoples and history of Asia began. Lamb built a career with his writing from an early age. He got his start in the pulp magazines, quickly moving to the prestigious Adventure magazine, his primary fiction outlet for nineteen years. In 1927 he wrote a biography of Genghis Khan, and following on its success turned more and more to the writing of non-fiction, penning numerous biographies and popular history books until his death in 1962. The success of Lamb's two volume history of the Crusades led to his discovery by Cecil B. DeMille, who employed Lamb as a technical advisor on a related movie, The Crusades, and used him as a screenwriter on many other DeMille movies thereafter. Lamb spoke French, Latin, Persian, and Arabic, and, by his own account, a smattering of Manchu-Tartar.
From Wikipedia
Born in Alpine, New Jersey, he attended Columbia University, where his interest in the peoples and history of Asia began. Lamb built a career with his writing from an early age. He got his start in the pulp magazines, quickly moving to the prestigious Adventure magazine, his primary fiction outlet for nineteen years. In 1927 he wrote a biography of Genghis Khan, and following on its success turned more and more to the writing of non-fiction, penning numerous biographies and popular history books until his death in 1962. The success of Lamb's two volume history of the Crusades led to his discovery by Cecil B. DeMille, who employed Lamb as a technical advisor on a related movie, The Crusades, and used him as a screenwriter on many other DeMille movies thereafter. Lamb spoke French, Latin, Persian, and Arabic, and, by his own account, a smattering of Manchu-Tartar.
From Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 3, 2019
Harold Lamb was both a novelist and a writer of popular histories. This is the story of Genghis Khan and the Mongols, a people who once controlled land from China to the Danube River. I never thought a historical nonfiction book could be suspenseful, but this one is. Highly recommended. It will definitely broaden your perspective on the world.
October 24, 2019
This is another old book I got as a castoff and finally got around to reading. My opinion--it's really good.
You know, with caveats.
It's from 1940, which makes it a bit dated. That shouldn't matter much, obviously, with the topic being a pretty distant past, but some stuff comes through from the time of the writing that isn't current. There's a lot of talk--could be metaphor but doesn't feel like it--about what this people or that people is best at or most fit for, in the sense of racial proclivities. Russians are like this, Mongols are like that, Persians do this... It's not to the same extent as, say, 19th Century British historians, but it's noticeable. Also, 1940s misogyny shows up here and there. When the Oyrat tribe goes against Ogadai, he takes many of their women as his wives, gives others to his officials, gives others to "keepers of prostitutes," and lets his guards take still more. And here is the conclusion of that incident: "The Oyrat men had attmpted to disobey the Khakhan, and they had learned their lesson..." Yes, clearly the men suffered. [Rolling my eyes.]
However, having said that, this book is less culturally chauvinistic than I expected in an 80-year-old history book. He often describes Europe of the 13th and 14th Centuries as a backwater, an unimportant peninsula at the end of the continent, a land of barbarians on the fringes of enlightened civilization. These descriptions have merit, and seem more modern in tone than I expected from a book written in 1940. (Makes me wonder if the author signed off on the title of his book. Or maybe it's ironic.)
As to the rest of the work, I found it a very thorough, readable, clear history of the Mongols and their allies, the Turks and Tatars and others. He went to a lot of primary sources for his information, much of which was difficult to come by at the time. The author, IMO, treated the individuals and the cultures in an objective way, describing Mongol brutality without sugarcoating it and their enlightenment, such as their religious tolerance, without stinting. In the afterward, he states: "I have only tried to draw the men themselves, as they existed against the background of their time, as it was then." This had to be quite progressive for 1940; bearing in mind the caveats mentioned above, the history is reasonably modern even in 2019.
There are many histories of the Mongols. I have several, actually, all of them newer than this one. In any case, I enjoyed it, finding it very readable, and am not reluctant to recommend this book if you find it on the shelves somewhere. Well worth picking up.
You know, with caveats.
It's from 1940, which makes it a bit dated. That shouldn't matter much, obviously, with the topic being a pretty distant past, but some stuff comes through from the time of the writing that isn't current. There's a lot of talk--could be metaphor but doesn't feel like it--about what this people or that people is best at or most fit for, in the sense of racial proclivities. Russians are like this, Mongols are like that, Persians do this... It's not to the same extent as, say, 19th Century British historians, but it's noticeable. Also, 1940s misogyny shows up here and there. When the Oyrat tribe goes against Ogadai, he takes many of their women as his wives, gives others to his officials, gives others to "keepers of prostitutes," and lets his guards take still more. And here is the conclusion of that incident: "The Oyrat men had attmpted to disobey the Khakhan, and they had learned their lesson..." Yes, clearly the men suffered. [Rolling my eyes.]
However, having said that, this book is less culturally chauvinistic than I expected in an 80-year-old history book. He often describes Europe of the 13th and 14th Centuries as a backwater, an unimportant peninsula at the end of the continent, a land of barbarians on the fringes of enlightened civilization. These descriptions have merit, and seem more modern in tone than I expected from a book written in 1940. (Makes me wonder if the author signed off on the title of his book. Or maybe it's ironic.)
As to the rest of the work, I found it a very thorough, readable, clear history of the Mongols and their allies, the Turks and Tatars and others. He went to a lot of primary sources for his information, much of which was difficult to come by at the time. The author, IMO, treated the individuals and the cultures in an objective way, describing Mongol brutality without sugarcoating it and their enlightenment, such as their religious tolerance, without stinting. In the afterward, he states: "I have only tried to draw the men themselves, as they existed against the background of their time, as it was then." This had to be quite progressive for 1940; bearing in mind the caveats mentioned above, the history is reasonably modern even in 2019.
There are many histories of the Mongols. I have several, actually, all of them newer than this one. In any case, I enjoyed it, finding it very readable, and am not reluctant to recommend this book if you find it on the shelves somewhere. Well worth picking up.
August 31, 2017
This book was something of a find. It came to me as part of my wife's late father's papers. Although first published in 1941 the book is surprisingly contemporary in the subject matter it covers. It is an account of four generations of Mongol leaders, from Genghis Khan, through his sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons. It gave me an insight into an area of which I knew very little.
The book is arranged into a series of narratives, which are grouped dynastically and chronologically. It covers the span of the Thirteenth Century, and deals with the process by which the Mongols came to dominate Central Asia, then spreading outwards to come into contact with Europe, the Indian sub-continent, and China. I would imagine that most people in the west are largely oblivious of this period of history. However, it is formative because, from this timeline, modern Russia, Iran, and China eventually emerge.
We can readily divide the book into four parts. The first deals with the ascendancy of Temujin, who we know as Genghis Khan. It was he who unified the Mongol nomads into what could be discerned as a Mongol nation. With a combination of brute force and cunning he unified the warring tribes of the Steppes into a force capable of reaching out beyond the Steppes.
The expansion of Mongol influence was left to his sons - Juchi, Chagatai, Ogadai, and Tului. The other three parts of the book are devoted to each of their houses. The House of Juchi eventually becomes the Golden Horde under Batu and Birkai, and provides the basis upon which the Russian dynasties were formed. The House of Ogadai, in conjunction with the House of Chagatai, retained influence in the Mongol heartland. The House of Tului split into the House of Kubilai and the House of Hulagu. The House of Kubilai eventually formed the Yuan Dynasty in China, and the House of Hulagu eventually formed the Il Khans of Persia.
This appears to have been quite a formative period for the modern world, one that was shaped by events in Asia rather than by those in Europe. This is an interesting perspective, one that I don't normally receive. It explains Asia as the product of Asia rather than through the lens of how Europe interacted with Asia. For students of contemporary Asia, it has much to recommend it.
I quite enjoyed the book. It is written in an archaic style, which does take a bit of getting used to. However, once you are on top of this, the narrative simply flows along. The style is conversational rather than analytical, which means that it reads more as a story than an historical text. I quite like that approach.
The book is arranged into a series of narratives, which are grouped dynastically and chronologically. It covers the span of the Thirteenth Century, and deals with the process by which the Mongols came to dominate Central Asia, then spreading outwards to come into contact with Europe, the Indian sub-continent, and China. I would imagine that most people in the west are largely oblivious of this period of history. However, it is formative because, from this timeline, modern Russia, Iran, and China eventually emerge.
We can readily divide the book into four parts. The first deals with the ascendancy of Temujin, who we know as Genghis Khan. It was he who unified the Mongol nomads into what could be discerned as a Mongol nation. With a combination of brute force and cunning he unified the warring tribes of the Steppes into a force capable of reaching out beyond the Steppes.
The expansion of Mongol influence was left to his sons - Juchi, Chagatai, Ogadai, and Tului. The other three parts of the book are devoted to each of their houses. The House of Juchi eventually becomes the Golden Horde under Batu and Birkai, and provides the basis upon which the Russian dynasties were formed. The House of Ogadai, in conjunction with the House of Chagatai, retained influence in the Mongol heartland. The House of Tului split into the House of Kubilai and the House of Hulagu. The House of Kubilai eventually formed the Yuan Dynasty in China, and the House of Hulagu eventually formed the Il Khans of Persia.
This appears to have been quite a formative period for the modern world, one that was shaped by events in Asia rather than by those in Europe. This is an interesting perspective, one that I don't normally receive. It explains Asia as the product of Asia rather than through the lens of how Europe interacted with Asia. For students of contemporary Asia, it has much to recommend it.
I quite enjoyed the book. It is written in an archaic style, which does take a bit of getting used to. However, once you are on top of this, the narrative simply flows along. The style is conversational rather than analytical, which means that it reads more as a story than an historical text. I quite like that approach.
September 5, 2020
Harold Lamb was a novelist before writing history books and it shows. The March of the Barbarians reads like an epic novel, focusing on relations between the various characters and the “why” of what happened. It is never boring, never tedious. It’s not a long list of battles, sieges and names of generals. I have read more than 15 books on the Mongols and I learned way more than I expected.
Yes, the book is a bit old, but it was written in a very modern style and you never feel like you listen to your grandfather who still think like in the ’30s.
After glancing rapidly on Genghis Khan’s early years, it goes on much more details after the 1206 Kuriltai and his successor, spending even a good chunk of the book on the legacy of the empire, with the expansion of the Russian empire, for instance.
I can very much be your first and only book on the topic. But you will still learn a lot even if you are more versed in the subject.
Yes, the book is a bit old, but it was written in a very modern style and you never feel like you listen to your grandfather who still think like in the ’30s.
After glancing rapidly on Genghis Khan’s early years, it goes on much more details after the 1206 Kuriltai and his successor, spending even a good chunk of the book on the legacy of the empire, with the expansion of the Russian empire, for instance.
I can very much be your first and only book on the topic. But you will still learn a lot even if you are more versed in the subject.
January 6, 2010
This is an excellent and pretty complete history of the Mongols from Genghis to Kublai Khan. I learned a lot about their empire, why it was successful for years, and some about why it fell apart. Amazing!
December 14, 2019
great book, lots of info. that I did not know. there is. Pretty much gets into every aspect of the Mongol Empire, from Genghis through the generations, including, a section pertaining to the women who held power through the generations.
November 11, 2016
This edition was written in 1940 and suffers from some of the stylistic choices for academic books of the day. Sources are detailed quite thoroughly at the end, which was not done in his book on Genghis Khan. However, both of these books lack citations of any sort, making tracing the sources extremely difficult. A prime example for me, having read them both almost back to back, is the printing of Genghis' answer to the question of what is good in life. The answer is in quotes in both books, without citations, and the two are significantly different from each other. This makes suspect the level of detail and suppositions of motivations of the historical figures discussed.
However, Lamb has a very engaging way of writing and it is this level of detail that helps to bring these almost mythological persons to life. I would endorse this as a good general history, that is also a good read.
However, Lamb has a very engaging way of writing and it is this level of detail that helps to bring these almost mythological persons to life. I would endorse this as a good general history, that is also a good read.
January 26, 2011
A fine epic of the Mongols and their hordes, from Genghis Kahn to Kubalai Khan, his great-grandson.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews