History of Russia, Central Asia, and Mongolia: Inner
Eurasia from Prehistory to the Mongol Empire, Vol. 1
Author: David Christian
ISBN: 0631183213
Format: Hardcover, 464pp
Pub. Date: September 1999
Publisher: Blackwell Publishers
Series: History of the World Ser.
ABOUT THE BOOK
History of Russia, Central Asia, and Mongolia: Inner Eurasia from Prehistory to
the Mongol Empire, Vol. 1
FROM THE PUBLISHER
This history of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia spans from the time of the
first inhabitants of the region up to the time of the Mongol Empire in the 13th
century. It presents Inner Eurasia as a coherent region with all 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 the emergence of the earliest farming societies of Central
Asia, and the pastoral nomadic societies of peoples such as the Scythians, the
Huns, and the Turks. It also describes the emergence of a powerful agrarian
state in the lands of Rus, where eventually the modern Russian state would
appear. The book describes the political and economic history of these societies
as well as their distinctive ways of life. It shows how their evolution reflects
the geography and ecology of Inner Eurasia. Together with volume II, which
covers the period to the present, this set is the most thorough and up-to-date
study of this fascinating and much misunderstood region.