Nomads
The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World
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- £8.49
Publisher Description
“Sattin is a terrific storyteller.” —David Farley, New York Times
The remarkable story of how nomads have fostered and refreshed civilization throughout our history.
Moving across millennia, Nomads explores the transformative and often bloody relationship between settled and mobile societies. Often overlooked in history, the story of the umbilical connections between these two very different ways of living presents a radical new view of human civilization. From the Neolithic revolution to the twenty-first century via the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the great nomadic empires of the Arabs and Mongols, the Mughals and the development of the Silk Road, nomads have been a perpetual counterbalance to the empires created by the power of human cities.
Exploring the evolutionary biology and psychology of restlessness that makes us human, Anthony Sattin’s sweeping history charts the power of nomadism from before the Bible to its decline in the present day. Connecting us to mythology and the records of antiquity, Nomads explains why we leave home, and why we like to return again. This is the history of civilization as told through its outsiders.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist and travel writer Sattin (Young Lawrence) delivers an insightful examination of the role nomadic cultures played in the development of modern civilization. Contending that nomadic groups were essential to the cyclical rise, development, breakdown, and regeneration of settled societies across the Middle East and Eurasian steppe, Sattin details confrontations and collaborations between "the mobile and the settled" in the early empires of Egypt, Greece, Persia, and Rome; chronicles the rise of Islam among Persian tribesmen and the expansion of the Mongol Empire across Central Asia; and explores the impact of colonialism and industrialization on nomadic societies around the world. Throughout, Sattin lucidly explains recent archaeological, linguistic, and genealogical research; draws vivid profiles of 14th-century Arab philosopher Ibn Khaldun, Yuan dynasty founder Kubilai Khan, and others; and illuminates the impact of pandemic diseases, climate change, and environmental degradation on world history. He also makes a convincing case that the brutality of nomadic cultures has been overstated and that their virtues, including adaptability, inclusion, and respect for nature, offer valuable lessons for today. Enriched by Sattin's evocative prose and tangible enthusiasm for the subject, this sweeping survey informs and entertains.
