TroyGoodfellow

Professional amateur

PR Manager for Historical Grand Strategy at Paradox Interactive, sometime podcaster, former strategy games maven


Some fuller thoughts on the first book I've finished in 2023.

The Mongol Storm is not as much about storm as it is about the flood. Though there is certainly a lot of text about who the Mongols were, broad sketches of their campaigns, and some in-depth discussion of the Ilkhanate, Morton's book is about the consequences of the Mongol invasions for other powers in the Near East.

Morton casts a wide net, from the Christian Crusader States hoping that the Mongols were the forces of the legendary Prester John, giving new energy to poorly planned campaigns, to the effects of the Mongol slave trade creating an elite slave army in Egypt that would rise to become the Mamluks, a great rival to Mongol power in the region. The collapse of the Kwarizim empire led to a refugee crisis across the Near East, some nations would try to unite to oppose the unstoppable storm while others would collaborate with the invaders to further their own local goals.

Though the book ends with a bit of Ibn Khaldun-ism about the natural strength of hybrid nomadic/settled states vs "civilized" nations, the general theme of the book is adapation in the face of crisis. Some supremely talented leaders can dance on the head of a pin, but feudal and monarchical systems are not really calibrated to deal with a long-term threat on the scale of the Mongols, at least until the Mongols themselves were consumed by internecine warfare and competing claims.

Morton writes very well and draws clear and clever portraits of many of the key personalities of the 13th and 14th centuries. It strongly argues against any effort to make the disputes of the region inherently religious, and usually hits his mark in his arguments. He makes a very strong case that one of the key effects of the Mongol invasions is that they made the world smaller. Genoa planned to build a fleet on the Euphrates to compete in India. It was not just the Polos who traveled the route from Christendom to Cathay. The politics of the Golden Horde had ramifications for Egypt.

I highly recommend the book.



Fortuitously, given my last post, Facebook has reminded me that it's been two years since I've set up my reading area in the house I had just bought. It's one of my favorite little corners in my home, with a comfortable chair, a small table and just enough shelf space - for now.

It still seems like yesterday, though. Everything about this home feels fresh and new and exciting. Getting old is weird.



So another week begins in the slow, nearly empty march to the Christmas holidays. This should mean more time to read, and I've just started a book about the philosophy and practice of slavery in the New World, because the winters aren't quite dark enough.

The first chapter of Blackburn's book lays out where slavery stood as a concept as the Early Modern World began. Slavery is, of course, an ancient concept, but had declined in Western Europe through the Middle Ages for a number of political and religious reasons. Still, the philosophical underpinnings of slavery (Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Isidore) always left some room to justify the policy intellectually, even as slavery became less popular or tenable as an economic practice (rise of free cities, post-plague peasant power in Western Europe, etc.)