Book Review: Timothy May. The Mongol Empire. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018

Since their thunderous arrival on the doorstep of Europe in the thirteenth century, the Mongol Empire has fascinated both students and historians alike as the exception to so many rules in world history. How did a nomadic, famously religiously-tolerant, primarily de-centralized people forge the single largest contiguous land empire in all of world history? In his most recent work, The Mongol Empire, Timothy May answers these questions as well as a multitude of others regarding the political, social and at times military history of the Mongol civilization. May is the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at the University of North Georgia, and a professor of Central Eurasian history, who specializes on the Mongol Empire. The current editor of Mongolian Studies: The Journal of the Mongolia Society and a prolific author of seven books and over 30 articles on the Mongol civilization, May's expertise on the history, traditions, and people of the steppe is on full display once again in this book.