Empires of the Steppes

By: Kenneth Harl

Narrated by: Corey M. Snow

Length: 17 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

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

Critic reviews

"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.

Interview with Dan Carlin

Listened to your interview on Dan Carlin and I just needed more so I went and found this book. It’s absolutely brilliant and it’s overflowing with knowledge that I’m still soaking up about 5 hours in and it’s wonderful. If you’re interested in the peoples of the steppe this is 100% the book for you. You can tell a lot of time and effort has gone into the research of this topic and I’m thoroughly thankful as the steppe peoples have always been a main focus on my personal goal of learning about history and military history. The steppe peoples have played such an important part of our history as humans and how they changed the world through their use of the bow and horse.

Excellent material, well-written, interesting, but spoiled by inept narrator.

I didn’t enjoy this as much as I should have because of the terrible narrator. Dr. Harl’s work is always erudite, well researched and fascinating, and this is no exception. But, the narrator seems incapable of handling any foreign language words, he’s not even great as pronouncing his, and my, own American English. He just sounds parochial and poorly educated and I had to waste too much time figuring out what his toponyms and other words meant, like the “You-shine” sea, the Euxine, I concluded. Sometimes it seems like Audible hires the most inept narrators they can find, like this one. If I can’t understand his European language pronunciation, how can I possibly follow his unfamiliar Asiatic ones? Dr. Harl could not possibly have been given the right of refusal in the selection of narrator, I would insist on that, as an author. Fortunately, the PDF is an excellent textbook, which I have printed and am now enjoying reading. I hope Dr. Harl will give us many more books on history, especially of the Greeks and Romans.

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.