Paleo Retiree writes:

Along with Blowhard, Esq. and Fabrizio del Wrongo, I’m a big fan of Kenneth Harl, a Tulane professor who has done numerous lecture series about early and medieval history for The Great Courses. He’s smart, he’s fast, he isn’t driven by ideology, he has a big gift for making facts seem like they matter, and he has a wonderfully caustic and lusty horror/appreciation for the egomaniacs and bastards who drive so much of history.

I just finished Harl’s “Barbarian Empires of the Steppes” and am pleased to report that it’s another good one. At 36 half-hour lectures, it may run a little long … but I felt like it flew by. Harl may be more fascinated by battles and conquests than I am … but he does have a genuine respect for culture and, hey, battles and wars and conquests are important. In the case of the barbarian tribes of the Euro-Asian steppes, he may be obliged to rely mainly on reports from the settled civilizations that surrounded them (the barbarians themselves didn’t leave many records) …  but he proves great at bringing the tribes and leaders to life anyway.

If that huge stretch between China and Europe is a big blank to you, as it largely was for me, this series will do an excellent job of filling it in. If you’re curious about Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan but are reluctant to commit yourself to reading entire books about them, this is a great introduction. I’ve got a much better grasp on the Turks, the Huns, the Mongols and many other tribes that have come and gone than I did previously. And hats off to Harl for his refreshingly realistic view of history. For him, the ebb and flow of populations over time is a matter of peoples and tribes trying to have their way in the world, and has little or nothing to do with ideals and such.

Related

• Harl’s series showed up in an epic posting by Blowhard, Esq. about how to educate yourself without going to college.
• I can’t imagine anyone arguing that they’re masterpieces, but as I went through Harl’s lectures I enjoyed watching this TV-movie-esque film about Atilla and this old-fashioned epic about Genghis Khan.