Context from the article: > The steppe restoration typifies what historians call the global turn, a larger project of shifting histories away from nation-state

Context from the article: > The steppe restoration typifies what historians call the global turn, a larger project of shifting histories away from nation-states and colonialist defamation and toward the peoples and processes that have knotted us together. It’s a survey of shadows, a tracing of negative space. It focusses on peoples who, in Sattin’s words, “have long been confined to the anecdotes and afterthoughts of our writers and histories.” These are some of the most maligned groups in historical chronicles: the uncivilized; the barbarians at the gate; the tribes who seem to appear from some demonic portal, destroy everything in sight, and then recede back into darkness. The steppe restoration repositions them. It treats them as subjects in their own right—as peoples who have their own histories, who formed societies no less complex than the sedentary states they confronted, and who helped craft the world we inhabit. > The emerging discipline had to overcome centuries of historiographic hubris. Writing about other peoples has long been in service of self-glorification. I think the term "architect" is probably better phrased as "major influencer". Yes - they did have major influence. No - they certainly weren't the brutal orks that the losers (us) said they were, they just won. Do we secretly celebrate the Roman empire, Alexander the Great, etc? What must the "other guys' texts say about them?". The mongol's resulting state must certainly have had intelligent, diligent, and benevolent leaders, so I think this is more of a "One of us!" type push. But honestly, horses and wheels? Yeah, that's a pretty big contribution, and that's the first few paragraphs of TFA. > More than the Greeks, the Romans, or the Chinese, it’s the nomadic Yamnaya whose legacy survives in our words and our bodies [70% of us have this DNA] Another good quote: > It was through the Mongol Empire, Harl writes, that papermaking, block printing, and gunpowder moved from the East to the West, hastening the spread of knowledge and catalyzing Europe’s conquest of the seas. “The global economy of the modern age was thus born thanks to the Mongol legacy,” he declares.