A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia, Volume I: Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire

Blackwell History of the World

by David Christian

This is a history of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia from the time of the first inhabitants of the region up to the break up of the Mongol Empire in 1260 AD. Inner Eurasia, as the author defines it, comprises most of the former Soviet Union and Russia's huge territories in Siberia; Russia's former empire in Central Asia; China's central Asian empire; and Mongolia, both the parts within China and those within the Mongolian People's Republic. The author presents Inner Eurasia as a coherent region with an underlying unity in geography and history despite its cultural and ecological variety. This volume, the first of two surveying this region, charts developments from the Old Stone Age, through changes under such peoples as the Scythians, the Huns and the Turks, to the emergence of an identifiable "Rus" - the society from which modern Russia and Ukraine have evolved. The book sets political events in the broadest context of social and economic change, linking evolution to the vast geography of the territories it describes. Together with volume II covering the period up to the present, the work represents the most thorough, up-to-date study of this fascinating and much misunderstood region of the world. The Blackwell History of the World Series The goal of this ambitious series is to provide an accessible source of knowledge about the entire human past, for every curious person in every part of the world. It will comprise some two dozen volumes, of which some provide synoptic views of the history of particular regions while others consider the world as a whole during a particular period of time. The volumes are narrative in form, giving balanced attention to social and cultural history (in the broadest sense) as well as to institutional development and political change. Each provides a systematic account of a very large subject, but they are also both imaginative and interpretative. The Series is intended to be accessible to the widest possible readership, and the accessibility of its volumes is matched by the style of presentation and production.

Genres: History, Russia, Nonfiction, Asia, Ancient History, Prehistory, Russian History

496 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

David Gilbert Christian is an Anglo-American historian and scholar of Russian history notable for creating and spearheading an interdisciplinary approach known as Big History. He grew up in Africa and in England, where he earned his B.A. from Oxford University, an M.A. in Russian history from the University of Western Ontario, and a Ph.D. in 19th century Russian history from Oxford University in 1974.

He began teaching the first course in 1989 which examined history from the Big Bang to the present using a multidisciplinary approach with assistance from scholars in diverse specializations from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The course frames human history in terms of cosmic, geological, and biological history. He is credited with coining the term Big History and he serves as president of the International Big History Association.

Christian's best-selling Teaching Company course entitled Big History caught the attention of philanthropist Bill Gates who is personally funding Christian's efforts to develop a program to bring the course to high school students worldwide in part via the website http://www.bighistoryproject.com

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christian drags the biggest landmass in the world back into its proper place in world history with this dense and often hilarious look at that greater part of Asia that everyone ignores. Draw a square starting in Helsinki, skirt the Great Whiteness to the west and draw a line down through Turkey, swing east almost south of the Caspian all the way through Central Asia, ignoring the Middle East, get to Xinjiang and bend Northeast all the way to Magadan. That's what this book covers. Steppes, nomads, pastoralists and crazy shamanic religions, people eating maggots, milk wine, hooks on lances for tearing assholes off of horses, Genghis Khan, Kipchaks, Pechenegs...all the awesome stuff you've never known about your world.
Christian works through that Hodgsonian/Lughodian Big World view of things and it's hard to argue against him. This giant chunk of Asia, shit, let's face it, most of Asia, spawned some of the most enduring empires and lifeways in history. Some of these peoples live the same way they have for millenia. And why? What makes it so enduring? These are good questions and it's hard to convey the sheer staggering immensity of this wide diverse region with all its people, except maybe to say that it is this immensity that best personifies them.
It might seem dense and jam-packed with names, but I guarantee that by the end of it you'll known your Vyatichians from your A-shih-na.

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 5 out of 5]

He has gone on to help invent Big History. He always thought big: this, perhaps more than any other book, explains how and why the steppe was different from the start. You'd never know what's in there by the title.

[Benjamin Plume · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the course that this book accompanied, and there was so much new info therin.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Amazone

A waste of paper, time and money

As an archaeologist working on the archaeology of North East Asia, I found this book a very big disappointment.

Then again what should I expect from a historian whose speciality is the 18th and 19th century history of Russia?

The author draws heavily on secondary works in English, German, French and Russian.

Instead of depending on those, he should have gone directly to the archaeological site reports and the historical annals themselves. Its also sad to see a synthesis on Russia and Central Asia that relies heavily on the works of English language scholars and ignoring the Russian and Mongolian language scholars.

In terms of some of his English secondary sources, ones like

Davis-Kimball - Nomads of the Eurasian Steppe
and Barfield's Perilous Frontier
are still in print.

Production values in this book are also uneven. The photographic reproductions in many cases are also poorly scanned copies. The publisher should have done a better job.

Mark E. Hall

[Douglas Berry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have probably gotten more out of this book had it been required reading as part of a college course on the subject. As is, it was incredibly dense and tried to cover too large a subject. It's good, but just too much at once.