Study of the past
Sep 1st, 2019, 8:05 am
12 Histories by Harold Lamb
Requirements: .pdf, epub and mobi readers, 157 MB
Overview: Harold Albert Lamb (Sept 1, 1892–Apr 9, 1962) was born in Alpine, New Jersey. He attended Columbia University, where his interest in the peoples and history of Asia began. He built a career with his writing from an early age. He got his start in the pulp magazines, quickly moving to the prestigious Adventure magazine, his primary fiction outlet for nineteen years. The editor of Adventure, Arthur Sullivant Hoffman, praised Lamb's writing ability, describing him as "always the scholar first, the good fictionist second."
In 1927 he wrote a biography of Genghis Khan, and following on its success turned more and more to the writing of non-fiction, penning numerous biographies and popular history books until his death in 1962 in Rochester, N.Y. The success of Lamb's two-volume history of the Crusades led to his discovery by Cecil B. DeMille, who employed Lamb as a technical advisor on a related movie, The Crusades, and used him as a screenwriter on many other DeMille movies thereafter. All of the following books are searchable, bookmarked Pdfs.
Genre:Non-Fiction > History

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Genghis Khan-The Emperor of All Men (1927)
Harold Lamb's first book, one of the earliest English language studies of the subject, "has fared better than any of his other works, remaining in print since 1927. Lamb himself thought this was peculiar because he believed his later books were better written. While Genghis Khan is a good read, I tend to agree: Tamerlane is a strong book, and March of the Barbarians is riveting. The latter title does little to reveal the quality within, for March is an in-depth history of the complex inner workings of the Mongol empire, written when Lamb was more experienced and had the financial wherewithal—as well as the clout with publishers—to take the time for extensive research. His Genghis Khan proposal had been approved by the publisher only so long as he could write the book in two weeks, a demanding request even for someone intimately familiar with the subject matter. March of the Barbarians covers the same material as Genghis Khan in richer detail, and then goes on to describe the great Khan's successors with the same care." ~Forword, by Howard Jones, to Swords from the East~

Tamerlane, The Earth Shaker (1928)
"Tamerlane is a Westernization of the Persian tale of Tamer Lenk. When the baby was first born, his parents took him to a holy sheik to be blessed. As they arrived, the sheik was reading a section of the Koran with that word, and instantly upon seeing him declared that his name would be Tamuru. During his lifetime, he conquered more territory than anyone except Alexander. His rule extended from his home base in Samarkand, southern Russia down through Iran and Syria in the west and into Northern Indian the south, and eastward into the westernmost parts of China. Although at times a brutal conqueror, he was also a man of compassion and great intelligence. He spoke several languages and was a patron of art, poetry and music." ~GoodReads~
Tamerlane and March of the Barbarians were published in an omnibus edition in 1949 as Earthshakers.

The Crusades I: Iron Men and Saints (1930)
In this volume is told the story of the first crusaders. It begins with their setting out, and it ends with the death of the last survivor. Several chronicles were written by men who marched with the crusaders, by two chaplains and an unknown soldier. There accounts of others who saw the crusaders pass, a princess of Byzantium, an Armenian patriarch. There is also the testimony of Arab travelers and historians of the period, and the notes of Genoese sea traders, and the saga of a Norse king. Upon these original chronicles the story in this book is based. It does not deal with the legends that grew up after the crusades. It is not history rewritten. It is the story of a dozen men, most of them leaders, who started out on that long journey-what they saw on the road, and what they did, and what befell them at the Sepulcher of Christ.

The Crusades II: The Flame of Islam (1930)
This is actually the second in a two part series detailing out the Crusades. The first aptly named Iron Men & Saints which details out the First and Second Crusades while this one follows the rise of Saladin and eventual downfall of the Catholic Kingdom in the Levant and then focuses on the fall of the Byzantine Empire culminating in the final sack of Byzantium by the Ottomans and the development of what would become Istanbul.

The March of the Barbarians (1940)
"This is top notch escape reading. It carries one back to the so-called dark ages, when Asia flaunted a civilization far exceeding the western nations, when men on horseback swayed empires. The first quarter of the book builds up a vivid and colorful picture of the early history of these nomads of Asia's steppes; then comes in fuller detail, the story of Genghis-Khan, the interim period when his power was disputed by his sons and grandsons, following his death. Then the reign of Mangu-Khan,and the brilliant reign of Kubilai-Khan, the influence of the tribes on Europe, and the gradual recession. Legend and story and history skillfully interwoven, and told with such a ring of authenticity that one feels it is all true. A contribution to scholarship and at the same time a book which should appeal to adventure-loving boys." ~From a contemporary review from Kirkus Reviews (1940)~

Alexander of Macedon (1946)
Incomparable historian Harold Lamb does it again with the most authoritative book yet on Alexander. The enigma of Alexander the Great has remained with us for 2,300 years. In spite of the best efforts of historians, Alexander is no less a mystery to us now than he probably was during his own lifetime. There was no one like him before or since. In the pages of Harold Lamb's intriguing Alexander of Macedon, we find some of the answers to the great riddle of his character. Lamb, author of the magnificent Hannibal: One Man Against Rome, has once more pushed the envelope of historical writing to give us a glimpse of what Alexander might really have been like. Using as his principle source material the Anabasis of Alexander by Arrian, Lamb has cobbled together not only a straightforward retelling of the exciting adventures of the Macedonian, but he has also deftly reconstructed those hidden events of which history is silent. ~Goodreads (2007)~

The March of Moscovy (1948)
The March of Muscovy: Ivan the Terrible and the Growth of the Russian Empire, 1400-1648, to give it it's full title. "'In the beginning,' says Mr. Lamb in his introduction, 'there was only a town on a river, and not a very notable town at that. Upon that town of Moscow certain forces acted, and around it outward events took shape, resulting in migration and colonization across the breadth of the Eurasian continent, and even bridging the sea to the New World. What were these forces? Why did such a mass movement take place? And why did it move the way it did?' In answering these questions, and others, Harold Lamb provides the background for the larger and more puzzling query: how was the Russian giant born, and how did it grow? Harold Lamb has a way of breathing life into the past, of combining the best of scholarship with the most of interest and vitality. Now, in telling the story of the growth of fifteenth- to seventeenth-century Russia, he has called forth the voices of contemporary visitors and merchants, exploring Cossacks, diplomats of the time, exiled priests, and the words of that most acute observer of his own people, Ivan the Terrible. For Ivan is the dominant figure of the story as he was the dominant figure of his age - terrifying, cruel, visionary, ambitious, and able. The March of the Muscovy is the story of the work that Ivan the Terrible began, a work that may not yet be completed." ~Dust jacket notes~

The City and the Tsar (1948)
The City and the Tsar: Peter the Great and the Move to the West, 1648-1762. A sequel to The March of Muscovy - this is further development of Russia's history, focused on a period when, for the first time, Russia-in her ruler, Peter the Great-turned her face West. In its concentration on a relatively brief period, the book is easier reading than its predecessor. With brief backward glance to Alexis Romanov- and forward to the quarrels of the successors, the main body of the text highlights the new Russia formed in the years 1648-1772. The scene shifts from Moscow in its heyday, to St. Petersburg, whose geographical position called for foreign wars to open up Baltic ports,- and then back to Moscow. Peter was treated as a barbarian when he visited Western potentates, and made up his mind to show his might. He built a vast- for those days- fleet; he trained a vast army; he was the aggressor in an endless succession of foreign wars; he extended Russia's boundaries to the West and then, turning East again, was halted by the Manchus of China and the tribes. Here is Russia's history, and Peter's story too- the story of a man great in his age, whose stamp was put on his country for all time. A stormy period- but with a certain discipline taking shape. Don't sell as fiction- or easy reading-but serious history by one of today's authorities. ~Kirkus Reviews~

Theodora and the Emperor- the Drama of Justinian (1952)
"This is Justinian's story and that of Theodora and of Belisarius -- the story of an era cloaked in legend. With his accustomed skill in lending drama to remote history without seeming to embellish it unduly, Harold Lamb has traced through tenuous sources the record of Peter Babbatius, a mountain lad who became an emperor, who from his study welded remote frontiers into a great empire, who rewrote laws and gave people a sense of their own rights as citizens, who rebuilt a city, saved the glories that are Rome, and created in Constantinople the church that was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Theodora, his empress, was even more of a nobody --a circus brat, who kept herself alive by her wits and who won through to the world's most powerful throne -- and the devotion of Justinian -- the hatred and jealousy of many- and a mature wisdom which provided the Emperor with needed balances. Belisarius, scarcely more than a common soldier, was third of this triangle,- a military genius, single-hearted, single-minded, he achieved the impossible with a handful of men. More history than story here." ~Kirkus Reviews~

Genghis Khan and the Mongol Horde (1954)
Harold Lamb has written extensively about the Mongols: in his 1927 biography of Genghis Khan, March of the Barbarians in 1940, and notably in such stories as The Three Palladins and Durandal. This is a pared-down version written specifically for the Landmark series of historical books for young readers, and reads like a novel. It doesn't disappoint. Great storytelling and full of details of the Mongol way of life and war.

Charlemagne: The Legend and the Man (1954)
Harold Lamb has learned the art of merging really enormous scholarship with a true sense of story and drama and character. In his Charlemagne he has tapped sources of ancient manuscripts, preserved in monasteries and museums and state archives, and the result is the most unusual and completely rounded portrait of a great emperor whose story has hitherto been shrouded in legend. Here we follow him from his gauche, insecure boyhood, through years of welding together the disparate elements of a Europe that was still largely pagan, and making of it a vast Western world sanctified by ecclesiastical authority. One reads of his casual succession of marriages, his growing family- sons who must have kingdoms, daughters who must be wed. One likes best his ability to live with and for his people, knowing them at all levels. With small education, along in middle life he found a teacher to his liking, the canny Alcuin, under whom the palace school became, for its day, a center of learning. Charlemagne was an extraordinary administrator; some of his methods, such as leaving conquered people with a sense of independent functioning, codifying laws, strengthening his boundaries by establishment of marches, have a very modern note. There was the other side too:-massacres and forced transplanting of whole communities left their heritage of horror. The whole portrait of the man and the period is an enriching experience for the reader. ~Kirkus Reviews~

Constantinople: Birth of an Empire (1957)
Phoenix-like, the city of Constantinople rose from the ashes of Byzantium. Unlike conservative imperial Rome, Constantine saw the implications of stagnation and decay in the Western towns, the weeds springing up in the paving of Roman roads in disuse. From his recording of the founding of the Eastern center of the Roman Empire on the ruins of Byzantium, author Lamb skims briefly through succeeding rulers to a more rounded and expository view of the accomplishments of Justinian as emperor and law-giver. Dominant personalities shaping a city have occupied Harold Lamb's interest before, in The City and the Tsar. The implications of Justinian's reign for our own time, with his abstraction and codification of the hopeless mass of legal records into a cogent Corpus Juris are treated fully. The turbulent personal lives of Constantine, whose son and wife died by his command, and Justinian, whose marriage to Theodora, a one-time prostitute, was a coup of strategy and patience, are as fully treated as the military stratagems of Justinian and his general Belisarius. For historical scholars and researchers this offers readable information on Constantinople between the decay of the western Roman Empire and the sixth century. ~Kirkus Reviews~

Download Instructions:
Genghis Khan.pdf
https://www.mediafire.com/file/5hyooga3b68x6kh
Tamerlane.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/file/dkmxx5pf0l3iqmz
Tamerlane.epub
https://www.mediafire.com/file/hsvi4hxbf3v0kws
Tamerlane.mobi
https://www.mediafire.com/file/rr50xwsj1w3wkvp
Iron Men and Saints.rar
https://www.mediafire.com/file/ipgu8729k4my5ia
The Flame of Islam.rar
https://www.mediafire.com/file/ncord06f0h6lqkz
March of the Barbarians.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/file/zug9yle7osdeba9
Alexander of Macedon.rar
https://www.mediafire.com/file/z6o9ge8v72uq9de
March of Muscovy.pdf
https://www.mediafire.com/file/3wk9q1awftmlmyy
The City and the Tsar.pdf
https://www.mediafire.com/file/8lepegtsmgvfoaz
Theodora and the Emperor.pdf
https://www.mediafire.com/file/bw4jpvkk524996c
Genghis Khan and the Mongol Horde.rar
https://www.mediafire.com/file/bovi0z6ncmbhgtm
Charlemagne: The Legend and the Man.pdf
https://www.mediafire.com/file/mr01njfzo0veboi
Constantinople: Birth of an Empire
https://www.mediafire.com/file/puk06y4yaw1myz5
Books 1-9
https://www.mediafire.com/file/dr5mnrwu76f3e39

See also:
The Steppes Quartet
http://forum.mobilism.org/viewtopic.php?f=121&t=1471549
The Swords Quartet
http://forum.mobilism.org/viewtopic.php?f=1294&t=2020197
7 Novels by Harold Lamb
http://forum.mobilism.org/viewtopic.php?f=121&t=1393408
Little Lost Lambs
viewtopic.php?f=121&t=2020851
Sep 1st, 2019, 8:05 am
Sep 10th, 2019, 1:38 pm
Added 'Iron Men and Saints' plus new links for 'Tamerlane' (much smaller file size)
Sep 10th, 2019, 1:38 pm
Sep 14th, 2019, 2:22 pm
Added 'The March of Muscovy'
Sep 14th, 2019, 2:22 pm
Sep 19th, 2019, 9:36 am
Added 'The City and the Tsar'
Sep 19th, 2019, 9:36 am
Sep 22nd, 2019, 12:53 pm
Added 'Genghis Khan' from separate posting.
Sep 22nd, 2019, 12:53 pm
Sep 23rd, 2019, 12:24 pm
Added 'The Flame of Islam' and 'Alexander of Macedon'
Sep 23rd, 2019, 12:24 pm
Oct 6th, 2019, 3:25 pm
Added 'Genghis Khan and the Mongol Horde' - epub and mobi
Oct 6th, 2019, 3:25 pm
Oct 10th, 2019, 9:32 am
Added 'Charlemagne: The Legend and the Man.pdf'
Oct 10th, 2019, 9:32 am
Oct 19th, 2019, 1:33 pm
Added 'Theodora and the Emperor'
Oct 19th, 2019, 1:33 pm
Oct 27th, 2019, 4:49 pm
Added 'Constantinople: Birth of an Empire'
Oct 27th, 2019, 4:49 pm