NOMADS have gotten a short shrift in history. As Anthony Sattin writes in his new book, “Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World”: “People who live with walls and monuments, who have written most of history, have failed to find meaning in or to recognise the value of the lighter, more mobile, less cluttered lives of those who live beyond borders.”

Through Sattin’s research, which includes years of travels with modern-day nomadic peoples, he aims to correct that oversight by showing how nomadic people have contributed to human progress and development. He does this by tracing their history from 12,000 years ago to the present day, focusing on Scythians, Persians, Mongols, Turks, Huns, Mongols and Arabs, as well as the Maasai and Bedouin of today.

Sattin is a terrific storyteller, writing books that blend journalism, travel writing and history, including A Winter on the Nile, about Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert travelling in Egypt, and The Young T E Lawrence, in which he traces the footsteps of Lawrence in the Middle East.