A review by crzyarrow
The Barbarian Empires of the Steppes by Kenneth W. Harl

5.0

I love this lecturer. You can tell he loves the material, which for me makes it so much more fun to listen to, and he knows it well. I knew a decent amount about the Mongols already, but I didn't know much about any of the other groups from the steppes. The sections about the Shuang Nu (sp? Sorry guys, downside of lectures is not learning the spelling...) were really interesting and different. It also blew my mind that the barbarian empires had dealings with the Crusaders. I don't know why, but for some reason I never really placed those groups in the same time period before. And the fact that the barbarians are a large part of the eventual fall of the Roman Empire/ Byzantine Empire is really cool. All in all, great lecture, if you want something different I highly recommend this (and also his lecture on the Vikings).