Abstract

World history looks different when viewed from the perspective of nomadic peoples. From the Scythians and the Xiongnu to the Turks, Uighurs, Khitai, and the Mongol Empire, this book uses a vast amount of original historical documents to redraw human history from the perspective of the peoples of the steppes. This is an expanded edition of a long-selling collection. One Thousand Books" in February this year.

1 Beyond Ethnicity and National Borders
　1 The Conception of Eurasian World History
　2 From the Nomadic World
2 Composition of Central Eurasia
　1 Looking at the Great Land
　2 The Western Half of Eurasia
3 In Search of the Original Nomadic State
　1 Herodotus Speaks
　2 Contemporaneous History as Seen by Shiba Qian
4 Waves of Change across the Steppes and China
　1 Two Empires in Conflict
　2 A Time of Turning
5 The Turks and Mongols Moving the World
　1 The Giant Turkic World
　2 Waves of Eurasian Reorganization
6 Mongol War and Peace
　1 The "World" as Seen from the Outside
　2 Why Did the Mongols Expand?
　3 The Great Eurasian Trading Bloc
　4 The Rise of Capitalism
　5 Watershed in World History
7 Questioning the Framework of Modern History
　1 The Age of the Sea and Firearms
　2 Rethinking Eurasia

Author’s Information

Born in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1952. Lives in Ichimatsucho, Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto City. Graduated from the Faculty of Letters at Kyoto University and completed the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Letters. Currently, he is a professor at the Graduate School of Letters at Kyoto University. He holds a PhD in Literature. Major works include The Rise and Fall of the Mongol Empire (Volumes 1 and 2, Kodansha Gendai Shinsho), World History Seen from the Nomads' Perspective (Nikkei Business Library), History of China 08: The Galloping Conquerors of the Grasslands, and World History of the Rise and Fall 09: The Mongol Empire and its Long Aftermath (all published by Kodansha). In 1995, he received the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities for Kublai Khan's Challenge (Asahi Shimbun). For his contributions to research into Mongolian history, he received the Shiba Ryotaro Prize in 2003 and the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2006. He also received the Japan Academy Prize in 2007 for The Mongol Empire and the Yuan Dynasty (Kyoto University Press).