"In comparing neighboring Eurasian imperial polities, Khodarkovsky foregrounds their shared steppe nomadic heritage, making them less enigmatic and far more understandable. Anyone seeking to appreciate what Russia owes to this past and its continuing impact today must read this book."--Thomas Barfield, author of Shadow Empires: An Alternative Imperial History "Khodarkovsky's stimulating comparative approach illuminates early modern Russian and Eurasian history. A brief, lucid, and entirely persuasive case for the importance of steppe pastoralists to Russia, China, Iran, and the Ottoman Empire."--J. R. McNeill, Georgetown University "This book does double duty very well. Students and general readers will find a clear, cogent, and concise introduction to the histories of the early modern empires bordering the steppe: Russian, Ottoman, Safavid and Qajar, Mughal and Qing.

Scholars will find a provocative set of comparisons amongst the empires, which will offer new perspectives on histories we thought we knew, illuminated by comparisons of these states to each other, and with the states that were taking shape further west."--Kenneth Pomeranz, author of The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy.