Book description
The name Attila the Hun has become a byword for barbarism, savagery
and violence. His is a truly household name, but what do we really
know about the man himself, his position in history and the world in
which he lived? This riveting biography reveals the man behind the myth.
In the years 434-454AD the fate of Europe hung upon the actions of
one man, Attila, king of the Huns. The decaying Roman empire still
stood astride the Western World, from its twin capitals of Rome and
Constantinople, but it was threatened by a new force, the much-feared
Barbarian hordes. It was Attila who united the Barbarian tribes into a
single, amazingly-effective army. He launched two violent attacks
against the eastern and western halves of the Roman empire, attacks
which earned him his reputation for mindless devastation, and brought
an end to Rome's pre-eminence in Europe.
Attila was coarse, capricious, arrogant, ruthless and brilliant. An
illiterate and predatory tribal chief, he had no interest in
administration, but was a wily politician, who, from his base in the
grasslands of Hungary, used secretaries and ambassadors to bring him
intelligence on his enemies. He was a leader whose unique qualities
made him supreme among tribal leaders, but whose weaknesses ensured
the collapse of his empire after his death.
John Man is a historian and travel writer with a special interest in
Mongolia. After reading German and French at Oxford he did two
postgraduate courses, one in the history of science at Oxford, the other
in Mongolian at the School of Oriental and African Studies. His
Gobi:
Tracking the Desert
(Weidenfeld, 1997) was the first book on the subject in English since
the 1920s. He is also the author of
The Atlas of the Year 1000
, (Penguin 1999),
Alpha Beta
(Headline, 2000) on the roots of the Roman alphabet,
The Gutenberg Revolution
(Headline 2002) on the origins and impact of printing, and the
bestselling
Genghis Khan
. His latest book,
Kublai Khan
, is now available from Bantam Press.
