Stephen Turnbull is recognised as one of the world's foremost military historians of the medieval and early modern periods. He first rose to prominence as a result of his book published in 1977, The Samurai: A Military History, one of the few hardback books ever produced by Osprey. Since then he has achieved an equal fame in writing about European military subjects and has had 30 books published. He has always tried to concentrate on the less familiar areas of military history, in particular such topics as Korea, Eastern Europe, the Baltic states and the Teutonic Knights.

The history of the Mongol conquests is a catalogue of superlatives. No army in the world has ever conquered so much territory, and few armies have provoked such terror as the Mongol hordes. So vast was the extent of the Mongol Empire that the samurai of Japan and the Teutonic Knights of Prussia had each fought the same enemy while being unaware of each other's existence. This book provides a concise yet thorough account of the Mongol conquests, including the rise of Genghis Khan and the unification of the tribes with up to date information on campaign logistics, tactics and horse breeding.