Attila The Hun: A Barbarian King and the Fall of Rome [Import] [Paperback]

John Man (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2006

The name Attila the Hun has become a byword for barbarism, savagery and violence. His is a truly household name, but what do we really know about the man himself, his position in history and the world in which he lived? This riveting biography reveals the man behind the myth.

In the years 434-454AD the fate of Europe hung upon the actions of one man, Attila, king of the Huns. The decaying Roman Empire still stood astride the Western World from its twin capitals of Rome and Constantinople, but it was threatened by a new force, the much-feared Babarian horde. It was Attila who united the Barbarian tribes into a single, amazingly effective army and launched two violent attacks against the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire, attacks which earned him his reputation for mindless devastation, and brought an end to Rome’s pre-eminence in Europe.

Attila was coarse, capricious, arrogant, ruthless and brilliant. An illiterate and predatory tribal chief, he had no interest in administration, but was a wily politician who, from his base in the grasslands of Hungary, used secretaries and ambassadors to bring him intelligence on his enemies. He was a leader whose unique qualities made him supreme among tribal leaders, but whose weaknesses ensured the collapse of his empire after his death.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Man is a historian and travel writer with a special interest in Mongolia. His Gobi: Tracking the Desert was the first book on the subject in English since the 1920s. He is also the author of The Atlas of the Year 1000; Alpha Beta (on the roots of the Roman alphabet), The Gutenberg Revolution and Genghis Khan.

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (April 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553816586
• ISBN-13: 978-0553816587
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 1 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,746,300 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JOHN MAN

I usually write non-fiction, mainly exploring interests in Asia and the history of written communication. So 'The Lion's Share', available only on Kindle, is something different - a new edition of a thriller written some 25 years ago when I wasn't sure what I wanted to focus on. It's about the 'real' - in quotes, i.e. fictional - fate of Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia.

Most of the time, I like to mix history, narrative and personal experience, exploring the places I write about. It brings things to life, and it's a reaction against an enclosed, secure, rural childhood in Kent. I did German and French at Oxford, and two postgraduate courses, History and Philosophy of Science at Oxford and Mongolian at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (to join an expedition that never happened).

After working in journalism and publishing, I turned to writing, with occasional forays into film, TV and radio. A planned trilogy on three major revolutions in writing has resulted in two books, 'Alpha Beta' (on the alphabet) and 'The Gutenberg Revolution', both republished in 2009. The third, on the origin of writing, is on hold, because it depends on researching in Iraq. (On the fourth revolution, the Internet, many others can write far better than me).

My interest in Mongolia revived in 1996 when I spent a couple of months in the Gobi. 'Gobi: Tracking the Desert' was the first book on the region since the 1920's (those by the American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews). In Mongolia, everything leads back to Genghis. I followed. The result was 'Genghis Khan: Life, Death and Resurrection', now appearing in 20 languages. Luckily, there's more to Mongol studies than Genghis. 'Attila the Hun' and 'Kublai Khan' came next.

Another main theme in Asian history is the ancient and modern relationship between Mongolia and China. 'The Terracotta Army', published to in 2007, was followed by 'The Great Wall', which took me from Xinjiang to the Pacific. 'The Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan' (combining history, character analysis and modern leadership theory) and 'Xanadu: Marco Polo and Europe's Discovery of the East' pretty much exhausted Inner Asian themes for me.

So recently I have become interested in Japan. For 'Samurai: The Last Warrior', I followed in the footsteps of Saigo Takamori, the real 'Last Samurai', published in February 2011. After that, more fiction, perhaps.

I live in north London, inspired by a strong and beautiful family - wife, children and grand-children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling Read, October 13, 2006

By 

J. Chippindale (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Attila The Hun: A Barbarian King and the Fall of Rome (Paperback)

Is it me, or are modern days authors making historical books that much more readable. Most of the historical books I have read recently are far removed from the dusty old volumes that lay mouldering in the bookcase or on the shelves of the library. Mainly, I believe because the contents inside the book are as dry and dusty as the outside and of little value to anyone other than a scholar.

This book is written with a light touch, making it refreshingly readable without straying from the facts. If more books were written in this way, history would become a rare treat, rather than something that is there mainly for the academic.

Although most schoolboys know the name Attila, a man who was known for his barbarism, and some may even be able to tell you that he was instrumental in holding the fate of the Roman Empire in his hands. Very little else is known about the man himself and the warriors he led.

In the early 5th century AD Attila and his warriors earned an undying reputation for savagery, the like of which had never been seen. His empire briefly rivalled that of Rome, reaching from the Rhine to the Black Sea, the Baltic to the Balkans.
This book is a compelling read about the man, known throughout history as a barbarian, who was arrogant and ruthless, but on the other side of the coin a man with a brilliant mind and the charisma to win the loyalty of millions. I enjoyed it tremendously.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Romans were right., September 11, 2009

By 

M. Asher "FRSL" (Kenya) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Attila The Hun: A Barbarian King and the Fall of Rome (Paperback)

This is an awful book. I am generally a subscriber to John Milton's adage that 'he who destroys a book destroys reason itself', but Man's work is a definite candidate for the bin. First of all, it isn't even a biography of Attila the Hun: it mostly deals with Man's tedious concern with disproving the ancient Roman prejudice against the Huns. Every time it threatens to become interesting as a historical text, Man spoils it by telling some unamusing and largely irrelevant story about his own travels, asking some silly rhetorical question (I don't know, do you?), as if he's addressing a bunch of primary school kids, or he breaks off to, for instance, spend a whole chapter talking about some nutty Hungarian who's convinced he has rediscovered the art of horseback archery without the slightest archaeological evidence to support him. Man's notions about the Hobbesian nature of nomads is also wrong: as one of the few people of my generation who has lived full time with a traditional nomadic tribe, I can say with some conviction that it is largely untrue that nomads covet the material wealth of settled people

Worst of all, though - and this is what REALLY condemns the book for me - is its ideological flaw. Man has the audacity to suggest that 'we ought to respect the Huns because they were a distinct culture with their own traditions', then demolishes his own case by proving that the Huns were nothing more than a clan of nomads from the steppes who consciously decided to throw all moral principles to the wind, and live by murder, rape and pillage. Afficionados of THE SOPRANOS might think this is dandy - that people or societies that have dedicated their lives to murder and theft are 'just the same as everybody else' but personally, I never got past the first season. I beg to think that this is Oxbridge 'church of reason' Liberal Orthodoxy at its most destructive worst. If we are to respect the Huns for being murderous savages, why not respect the Nazis, who after all, were also a distinct culture with their own traditions: if they murdered 6 million Jews in cold blood, so what? After all it was just their culture, so who are we to judge? In the end all Man did for me was convince me that the Romans were right.