How the Barbarian Invasions Shaped the Modern World: The Vikings, Vandals, Huns, Mongols, Goths, and Tartars Who Razed the Old World and Formed the New - Softcover

Críticas

""Most of us in the western world might enjoy tracing our cultural roots to the classic glories of Greece and Rome. But deep down we suspect that our mythic ancestors are really those so-called barbarians who broke things and created the modern world. With rarely a wasted word Thomas J Craughwell tells the stories of history-changing invasions of the Goths, Vandals, Vikings, Mongols and other marauding bands. He gives us the expected scenes of rape and pillage, but also an appreciation of the invaders' strategy, motives and their often-overlooked gifts and innovations. And he reminds us, with a fine sense of story and anecdote, that "barbarians" are what someone else calls an exotic, dangerous stranger. No one is a barbarian to him-or her-self. Handsomely illustrated with imaginatively selected historical paintings, drawings and maps. "-- David Willis McCullough, author-editor of Chronicles of the Barbarians and Wars of the Irish Kings.

With evident learning and great relish, Thomas J. Craughwell forges the story of the extraordinary change wrought in the world by the barbarians. He brings to sometimes horrifying life the onslaught of the Goths, Huns, Vandals a particularly nasty crew Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and others. With fascinating and little-known information on such barbarian luminaries as Attila the Hun and Olga, the murderous Viking princess of Kiev, this book is both wonderful history and thoroughly engrossing reading. Joseph Cummins, author of The World s Bloodiest History and The War Chronicles: From Flintlocks to Machine Guns

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"Most of us in the western world might enjoy tracing our cultural roots to the classic glories of Greece and Rome. But deep down we suspect that our mythic ancestors are really those so-called barbarians who broke things and created the modern world. With rarely a wasted word Thomas J Craughwell tells the stories of history-changing invasions of the Goths, Vandals, Vikings, Mongols and other marauding bands. He gives us the expected scenes of rape and pillage, but also an appreciation of the invaders' strategy, motives and their often-overlooked gifts and innovations. And he reminds us, with a fine sense of story and anecdote, that "barbarians" are what someone else calls an exotic, dangerous stranger. No one is a barbarian to him-or her-self. Handsomely illustrated with imaginatively selected historical paintings, drawings and maps. -- David Willis McCullough, author-editor of Chronicles of the Barbarians and Wars of the Irish Kings.

"With evident learning and great relish, Thomas J. Craughwell forges the story of the extraordinary change wrought in the world by the barbarians. He brings to sometimes horrifying life the onslaught of the Goths, Huns, Vandals--a particularly nasty crew--Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and others. With fascinating and little-known information on such barbarian luminaries as Attila the Hun and Olga, the murderous Viking princess of Kiev, this book is both wonderful history and thoroughly engrossing reading." --Joseph Cummins, author of The World's Bloodiest History and The War Chronicles: From Flintlocks to Machine Guns

Reseña del editor

Highlighted by full-color archival illustrations, an engaging history looks at the dramatic influence of the barbarian hordes that ravaged Europe and Asia more than eight centuries ago on the history of the world, from the destruction of the Roman Empire, to the unification of China, to the creation of many of the nations of Europe.