Customer Reviews

Warriors Of The Steppe: A Military History Of Central Asia, 500 B.c. To 1700 A.d.

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a well-written and researched book.

It outlines the history of nomadic raiders including the Scythians, Parthians, Sarmatians, Huns, Bulgars, Turks, Mongols, Tatars who fought against Greece, Rome, Byzantium, China, Russia, Ukraine, and the Ottomans. Hildinger maintains that raiding sedentary peoples was necessary for survival of horse-mounted warriors. They were made extinct by rifle toting infantry.

Hildinger is at his best when recounting the defensive tactics used victims of the horsemen. Regretfully, he does not detail the fighting tactics between the Tatars and the Cossacks. His best description is how Roman infantry fought the Parthians.

Erik Hildinger once again hits the mark with his latest book "Warriors of the Steppe". His prose makes this an enjoyable read. If you want to know about the people of the steppe and how they achieved success against their sedentary counterparts, this book will start you on that journey. The book initially deals with a generalization about nomadic peoples and their tactics. It then delves into specific historic groups ranging from the Scythians to the Manchu. While the book is well written, its broad nature as an introductory tract will more than likely whet your appetite for more. I am sure that in the future Mr. Hildinger's excellent writing skills in this subject area will be put to good use in writing specifically about any one of these peoples.

As a university lecturer in military history I am constantly looking for good books for my students (both civilians and army officer cadets) to study. Hildinger's book is marvellous, and I recommend it to my students as an example of how warfare should be analysed and history should be written.

The book is one of the only few of its kind which summarises some of the best know steppe warriors in one breath. The pros- 1) Covers a wide range unlike other works which restrict themselves to only one of the tribes. 2) A fairly correct historical perpective in terms of recognizing the importance of composite bow and horsemanship in the military success of these tribes.

Cons- 1) Genealogies of the mongol khans are wrong- Mangu is a grandson of Chingiz and Guyuk a son of Ogodai 2) While dealing with a primarily Asiatic class of people the author take a perspective of a later day European and thus misses many of nuances of their steppe peoples. 3) Complete negligence of the body of information on the Eastern Huns, Hephalites and Kidarites.

In essence, until a more complete book is written this one may serve to introduce a novice to the field of Central Asian history always keeping in mind this is not the entire picture.

I haven't read, but judgeing from the summaries and reviews, there is no mention of most of these groups that are Turkic, or rather no mention to Turks at all. Turks are the most successful Central Asiatic people that have bridged east and west and was able to maintain its culture and values.

The Huns, Mongols, Tartars, and other Central Asian warriors were the epitome of specialized cavalry, and the terror of the West for many centuries
Their weapons and tactics, and the nomadic existence from which they sprang, are analyzed in detail in this remarkably readable history, the first work to examine the steppe warriors from a military perspective.
With photos, maps, and diagrams, Hildinger's work is a valuable addition to military history and the history of an area which is little known in the West.

The "score" rating is an unfortunately ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not willingly "score" books.)

Hildinger's history of the Warriors of the Steppe makes one wonder why one of the various tribes did not conquer Europe. It reminds one that Europe played a minor, or at least not as important a role, as one might of learned.

The book is straight forward and describes the military tactics that allowed the Steppe Warriors to beat all in their path. What is most interesting is the constant flow of superior warriors for almost two thousand years and the inability of the rest of the world to defeat them. The only thing that led to their demise was the invention of firearms which allowed defenders to obtain the firepower necessary to defeat them,

The book is not an extensive history on any of the tribes or nations, whether they be the Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, Turks, Mongols, or Tatars. In that sense the book is limited. However, it is an excellent overview for one who wishes to get a start.

I had hoped for more cultural discussion of the Steppe nomad's lifestyles. I guess that was my fault, the author does call this a military history. Still, the constant re-iteration of the theme, that horse-archers can whup anyone, was tedious.

While the various tribes had a lot in common, which the author convincingly demonstrates, they also doubtless had unique characteristics. He could have explored the uniqueness of the tribes in some depth.

This was an amazing book! Everyone should read it. I may be a teenager, but I am really interested in history, and this book was so informative and cool!

I found many grave historical inaccuracies with regard to Ukrainian history, which the author confuses with Russian History. This is significant since the majority of the book deals with Steppe civilizations based in Ukraine. I found this most profound with regard to the Mongol invasion of Kiev. Kiev is the first and greatest city of Ukraine, not Russia. King Daniel was one the greatest Ukrainian Kings of all time, not Russian. Kievan Rus was Ukrainian history, and not Russian History (The name Rus was used later to form the name Russia). The other large ommission is the role of the Ukrainian Cossacks, whose main purpose was a to fight the Crimean TATARS, successfully shielding Europe. This distinction was never made. In addition, I cannot believe that in this day and age a historian would refer to Ukraine and "the Ukraine".