Customer Reviews

Early Riders: The Beginnings of Mounted Warfare in Asia and Europe

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Another excellent book from Prof. Robert Drews. As with "Coming of the Greeks", and "End of the Bronze Age", Prof.Drews focuses his careful research and rational arguments on an interesting topic on which there is a lack of consensus.

The focus of the book is to examine the history of the use of horses for warfare. Prof.Drews challenges, and indeed does a good job demolishing, the traditional view held by many, that the peoples of the steppes of Central Asia have been great horsemen and mounted warriors (especially mounted archers) since the Bronze Age or even the Neolithic Age. Prof.Drews demonstrates that no such evidence exists, and that rather all evidence points to good riding dating back to no earlier than the early Iron Age (around 1,000 bc or so). He concedes that men no doubt did some awkward riding for centuries before, as pictorial/statue representations from the Near East demonstrate, but that only in the Iron Age did men master riding well enough to be able to do active hunting and fighting with it.

Prior to that time, horses, specifically on the steppe, were mostly used for food or for chariot/cart-pulling (the latter also in the Near East).

As with his others books, Prof.Drews carefully goes through various counter-theories, and shows them to be unfounded in their assertions.

His arguments about the effectiveness of mounted warfare, of cavalry vs. infantry, may not be as soldid as his other points, and will seem so for anyone who knows about military history, but these are minor points, as the main focus of the book is the developement of mounted warefare, not its tactical uses in battle.

Prof.Drews' style is very easy, and can be read by lay-man and professional alike, though some basic knowledge of the history of the regions covered would be good.

Unfortunately, in this book Prof.Drews once again continues his habit (noted by other reviewers of his other books) of giving quotes in other languages, such as German, without translating them. A habit that will no doubt frustrate those who are interested in his references.

Overall, another great book from Prof.Drews. I hope he continues to write books on such great topics.

I could not finish the book. It was written in a style that I really find annoying. There was a lot of good information that was quite interesting. However, nearly every paragraph had multiple references and footnotes. Many of the footnotes turned out to be references. None of the references are readily available to me. I dislike leaving a page to go to the back of the book to read the footnote because that loses context of the page being read. Not reading the footnote is not an option for me.