The Blood Dimmed Tide

Kaivon, the last Persian General, is celebrating as Hulagu Khan's dream of conquering the whole world lies in tatters. But the fight is not yet done, as Persia is still occupied by Mongol invaders. Betrayed by his cousin in the north, Hulagu must strike back at the Golden Horde, weakening the Mongol Empire even further with another civil war. Temujin, the youngest son of Hulagu, has developed abilities that can destroy a city's walls in a heartbeat. Unwilling to trust his father with something so powerful, he abandons the Empire. Recruited by others like him, Temujin seeks to restore balance to the world, whilst learning more about what he has become. Kokochin is the newest member of a secret society that protects Persia. She has found herpurpose, but her double life has been exposed. Now, she must find a way to escape the clutches of Empress, who seeks to use Kokochin's abilities to further their husband's plans of conquest. Deep within the Empire, a new threat is rising. One so dangerous thatitcould overshadow the legacy of Genghis Khan and change the world.

Kaivon, the last Persian General, is celebrating as Hulagu Khan's dream of conquering the whole world lies in tatters. But the fight is not yet done, as Persia is still occupied by Mongol invaders. Betrayed by his cousin in the north, Hulagu must strike back at the Golden Horde, weakening the Mongol Empire even further with another civil war. Temujin, the youngest son of Hulagu, has developed abilities that can destroy a city's walls in a heartbeat. Unwilling to trust his father with something so powerful, he abandons the Empire. Recruited by others like him, Temujin seeks to restore balance to the world, whilst learning more about what he has become. Kokochin is the newest member of a secret society that protects Persia. She has found her purpose, but her double life has been exposed. Now, she must find a way to escape the clutches of Empress, who seeks to use Kokochin's abilities to further their husband's plans of conquest. Deep within the Empire, a new threat is rising. One so dangerous that it could overshadow the legacy of Genghis Khan and change the world.

An expansive narrative of World War I's Eastern Front challenges longstanding analytical frameworks, offering a novel and far-reaching explanation for the emergence of new nation-states from the wreckage of Europe's land empires. In August 1914, Germany, Austria, and Russia sent millions of soldiers hurtling toward one another across the volatile borderlands of Central Europe. The early battles produced appalling casualties but no decisive triumphs; the Great War's Eastern Front would remain a cauldron of death and destruction for years. And unlike in western Europe, the killing would not end in 1918. With the collapse of the three empires, the front dissolved into a series of overlapping civil, international, and revolutionary wars that would continue for several years more. The connections among prewar, wartime, and postwar events in Central Europe are so strong, argues Jesse Kauffman, that we should analyze the conflict there in new chronological terms: starting with the Russian Revolution in 1905 and continuing until at least the 1921 Treaty of Riga. In particular, The Blood-Dimmed Tide shows that the emergence of sovereign nation-states in postwar Central Europe was neither the inevitable triumph of long-thwarted national ambitions nor a wholly contingent, unforeseeable outcome of the war. Rather, modern states emerged from a conscious decision taken by all the belligerents to encourage the nationalist aspirations of imperial subjects in their enemies' territories. Indeed, the repercussions of Central Europe's long Great War can be felt all the way to today's conflict in Ukraine. It might be time to retire Eric Hobsbawm's famous notion of the "short twentieth century"--1914 to 1991--and to consider instead that the twentieth century has not yet drawn to a close.

An expansive narrative of World War I’s Eastern Front challenges longstanding analytical frameworks, offering a novel and far-reaching explanation for the emergence of new nation-states from the wreckage of Europe’s land empires. In August 1914, Germany, Austria, and Russia sent millions of soldiers hurtling toward one another across the volatile borderlands of Central Europe. The early battles produced appalling casualties but no decisive triumphs; the Great War’s Eastern Front would remain a cauldron of death and destruction for years. And unlike in western Europe, the killing would not end in 1918. With the collapse of the three empires, the front dissolved into a series of overlapping civil, international, and revolutionary wars that would continue for several years more. The connections among prewar, wartime, and postwar events in Central Europe are so strong, argues Jesse Kauffman, that we should analyze the conflict there in new chronological terms: starting with the Russian Revolution in 1905 and continuing until at least the 1921 Treaty of Riga. In particular, The Blood-Dimmed Tide shows that the emergence of sovereign nation-states in postwar Central Europe was neither the inevitable triumph of long-thwarted national ambitions nor a wholly contingent, unforeseeable outcome of the war. Rather, modern states emerged from a conscious decision taken by all the belligerents to encourage the nationalist aspirations of imperial subjects in their enemies’ territories. Indeed, the repercussions of Central Europe’s long Great War can be felt all the way to today’s conflict in Ukraine. It might be time to retire Eric Hobsbawm’s famous notion of the “short twentieth century”—1914 to 1991—and to consider instead that the twentieth century has not yet drawn to a close.