Tamerlane: Conqueror of the Earth

Tamerlane: Conqueror of the Earth
By Harold Lamb
Published in 1928
216 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 1/5

These old fashioned history books really make me cringe. Instead of historiography, they make stuff up to fill the gaps. The book starts with this semi-anachronistic detailed description of Tamerlane’s early life.

Nowadays, many non-Western historians blame turn of the century British writers for making up facts and perpetuating stereotypes. Harold Lamb is definitely guilty of this.

I’ve read many Harold Lamb books, and they almost all suffer from the same problems. They are spiced up to make them more entertaining at the expense of truth. 

The dated pre-WW1 comparison at the beginning between Tamerlane and Mussolini made me laugh out loud. 

However, this book wasn’t cringy enough or entertaining to be worth reading. I didn’t finish it.

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