The horse lords who swept across Asia and nearly took Europe. ( )

As other reviewers have pointed the erudition is marvelous but the work was unfinished at the author's death. The book could certainly have used his hand to complete it. The first part of the manuscript was more or less complete but the second part was unfinished. Parts of it are polished but a great deal is little more than lists of names, objects, etc. with the author's notes attached.

The most noticeable theme, to my mind, is that very little is known of the Huns despite a lot of scholarly study. Despite many declarations of fact by the author almost everything is theory. The language, the looks, the religion of the Huns are not really known. Scholars scrabble among bits and fragments of archeology and the writings of enemies ignorant of their life.

As was stated in the foreword this is a book for scholars. However, the layman can gain a great deal from it but he must sift hard to do so. I recommend this book for reference more than for reading. ( )

This book was unfinished at the author's death - frankly: it shows. The treatment is uneven and sketchy on some parts, but the book still gives a wealth of information. ( )

Is there another scholar capable of producing this wonderful piece of scholarship? Maenchen-Helfen dedicated his career to the topic, and was fluent in the relevant primary languages necessary to interpret the Huns legacy. This was his magnum opus produced in the ten years following his retirement from academia. ( )

Stunning erudition! This beautiful book was the (incomplete) product of a lifetime's research. Merely to marshall and assess the Greek and Latin sources is itself a formidable job, but this author does it beautifully (as far as I can tell). The second chapter - "History" - is 150 dense pages, and could easily have been made a book in itself.He ALSO makes careful use of Chinese sources, and some use of Georgian and other sources, as well as archeological digs. There are still many mysteries, but this book casts a great deal of light.