Product Description

The history of the Mongol conquests is a catalogue of superlatives. No army in the world has ever conquered so much territory, and few armies have provoked such terror as the Mongol hordes. So vast was the extent of the Mongol Empire that the samurai of Japan and the Teutonic Knights of Prussia had each fought the same enemy while being unaware of each other's existence. This book provides a concise yet thorough account of the Mongol conquests, including the rise of Genghis Khan and the unification of the tribes with up to date information on campaign logistics, tactics and horse breeding.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #156423 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 95 pages

Times Educational Supplement
‘Teachers looking for details of military campaigns, or A-level students, will certainly find these books detailed and authoritative.’

Daily Mail
‘[Essential Histories] make the perfect starting point for readers of any age.’

Daily Express
‘[Essential Histories are] accessible and well illustrated.’

Customer Reviews

Good summary of the main Mongol conquest
This book is like most Osprey Essential histories book; it covers the main ideas very well, in this case the Mongol conquest. The book is more of a summary rather than an in depth looks at the subject, which would require a massive book. The conquest by the Mongols, of certain areas are not covered as much as other areas. For instance the Mongol conquest of Persia is briefly covered while the conquest of China/Korea is more detailed.

The problem with books concerning the Mongols is that, most of the sources are from people who were terrorized by the Mongols; therefore the books written about them reflect this point.

I'd recommend the book if you want a concise but succinct look on the Mongol conquest.

The title is very misleading!
There are excellent books on Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan and one on Tamerlane, but this is the only book I know of that takes the 200 years of Mongol expansion and warfare and puts them in one book.

Well that's what I thought until I read it and realised that what the book ACTUALLY does is spend virtually all its time on Genghis down to Kublai and then summarises the next 100 years of Mongol history in...3 pages. Tamerlane is basically swept under the carpet and excused from the book as being Turkic rather than Mongol- a dubious excuse as most of the invading "Mongols" against Japan were either Chinese or Korean. So had I known that it's actually the Mongols 1190 to 1300 I probably wouldn't have bought it because plenty of books cover the Genghis Khan dynasty.

The book opens with a simple example of a tomb in Poland and a drawing in Japan both showing Mongol invaders and that pretty much sums things up. Some people who don't know their history say that Russia has never been conquered and that Afghanistan has withstood all invasions, the Mongols were able to achieve both and so much more.

The book itself is well written and has lots of maps- vital considering the sheer scale of conquests being described here. There are also lots of photos (although some aren't professionally taken- which you can tell- and others are black and white for no explicable reason) which make the whole read more lively.

Baring in mind the title it has been published under it's a very thin book and could have easily been double the length and it still would have only been about 200 pages. This would have given the second half (less well known half) of Mongol/nomad battling history the same coverage as the first half. Overall it's a well written introduction to the devil's horsemen.

a perfect source for background knowledge
This book does not overwhelm. It puts things plainly but in a way that is interesting and provides enough depth to keep you reading without the need to look at other books for reference, for an introduction to this subject look no further