By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean

By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean is nothing less than the story of how humans first started building the globalized world we know today. Set on a huge continental stage, from Europe to China, it is a tale covering over 10,000 years, from the origins of farming around 9000 BC to the expansion of the Mongols in the thirteenth century AD. An unashamedly 'big history', it charts the development of European, Near Eastern, and Chinese civilizations and the growing links between them by way of the Indian Ocean, the silk Roads, and the great steppe corridor (which crucially allowed horse riders to travel from Mongolia to the Great Hungarian Plain within a year). Along the way, it is also the story of the rise and fall of empires, the development of maritime trade, and the shattering impact of predatory nomads on their urban neighbours. Above all, as this immense historical panorama unfolds, we begin to see in clearer focus those basic underlying factors - the acquisitive nature of humanity, the differing environments in which people live, and the dislocating effect of even slight climatic variation - which have driven change throughout the ages, and which help us better understand our world today.

Barry Cunliffe taught archaeology in the Universities of Bristol and Southampton and was Professor of European Archaeology at the University of Oxford from 1972 to 2008, thereafter becoming Emeritus Professor. He has excavated widely in Britain (Fishbourne, Bath, Danebury, Hengistbury Head, Brading) and in the Channel Islands, Brittany, and Spain, and has been President of the Council for British Archaeology and of the Society of Antiquaries, a Governor of the Museum of London, and a Trustee of the British Museum. He is currently a Commissioner of English Heritage. His many publications include The Ancient Celts (1997), Facing the Ocean (2001), The Druids: A Very Short Introduction (2010), and Britain Begins (2012), all also published by Oxford University Press. He received a knighthood in 2006.

- 1: The Land and the People - 2: The Domestication of Eurasia, 10,000-5000 BC - 3: Horses and Copper: the Centrality of the Steppe, 5000-2500 BC - 4: The Opening of the Eurasian Steppe, 2500-1600 BC - 5: Nomads and Empires: The First Confrontations, 1600-6000 BC - 6: Learning from Each Other: Interaction along the Interface, 600-250 BC - 7: The Continent Connected, 250 BC-AD 250 - 8: The Age of Perpetual War, AD 250-650 - 9: The Beginning of a New World Order, AD 650-840 - 10: The Disintegration of Empires, AD 840-1150 - 11: The Steppe Triumphant, AD 1150-1300 - 12: Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards - Guide to Further Reading - Illustration Sources - Index