Nicola Di Cosmo is Senior Lecturer in Chinese History at the University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand).

• Introduction; Part I: 1. The Steppe Highway: the rise of pastoral nomadism as a Eurasian phenomenon; 2. Bronze, iron and gold: the evolution of nomadic cultures on the northern frontier of China; Part II: 3. Beasts and birds: the historical context of early Chinese perceptions of northern peoples; 4. Walls and horses: the beginning of historical contacts between horse-riding Nomads and Chinese states; Part III: 5. Those who draw the bow: the rise of the Hsiung-nu Nomadic Empire and the political unification of the Nomads; 6. From peace to war: China's shift from appeasement to military engagement; Part IV: 7. In search of grass and water: ethnography and history of the North in the Historian's Records; 8. Taming the North: the rationalization of the nomads in Ssu-ma Ch'ien's historical thought; Conclusion.

'This very substantial book is a work of great historical importance. Nicola Di Cosmo has a remarkable grasp of all aspects of the northern border world in the first millennium B.C. Written in a remarkably orderly and lucid way, Ancient China and Its Enemies is readily accessible not only to a specialist Chinese historian, but to any scholar interested in the relationships between the Chinese state and its northern neighbors in later times. This is a fine book, from which I have learned a great deal, and which has made me question some of my own ideas.' Denis Twitchett, Princeton University