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A loving kept book. A book that deserves to be read.

While Europe was still divided into a patchwork of feudal states, there emerged from the East a vast empire that eventually spanned the breadth of Asia. It had been forged under the banner of one of the greatest generals in history, Genghis Khan, and ruled by men who, a generation before, had been simple nomadic tribesmen. Accompanying a BBC2 series, this book traces the rise and fall of the Mongol Empire, describing the great storm that revolutionized the trade of goods and ideas in the medieval world and shattered the Euro-centric view of science and culture. The Mongols introduced the first international currency, built and projected vast highways across the Asian grasslands, and carved out the major political groups of modern Asia. The book gives an essentially Eastern view of these first important contacts between the Orient and the Occident. The author’s other books include “All the King’s Men”, “Shadow Makers” and “In the Sewers of Lvov”.

Review: Another excellent book from the BBC, providing a short but informative account of the Mongols. As the title suggests this history is told mainly from a European point of view, I imagine to the Chinese the Mongols were a storm from the West. Robert Marshall writes in a very clear and readable style, and the narrative describes events in chronological order making it easy to follow. He does not go into too much detail about the culture and history of the Mongols themselves but concentrates on their military conquests and the effect this had on world history.

The book does however suggest that Marshall is something of an admirer of the Mongols, a view which is hard to justify. In one part he argues that the Mongols were not just savage barbarians, then goes on to describe how they were responsible for killing more than 50 million people in their conquests. Overall, though this is a quick accessible history book which provides a great introduction and summary of the subject. Anyone studying medieval history would do well to read a copy to get a better understanding of how this vast empire joined East and West together for the first time.