The Bloody White Baron

New
Hardcover
2008
$17.78

Roman Ungern von Sternberg was a Baltic aristocrat, a violent, headstrong youth posted to the wilds of Siberia and Mongolia before the First World War. After the Bolshevik Revolution, the Baron - now in command of a lethally effective rabble of cavalrymen - conquered Mongolia, the last time in history a country was seized by an army mounted on horses. He was a Kurtz-like figure, slaughtering everyone he suspected of irreligion or of being a Jew. And his is a story that rehearses later horrors in Russia and elsewhere. James Palmer's book is an epic recreation of a forgotten episode and will establish him as a brilliant popular historian.

Synopsis

Roman Ungern von Sternberg was a Baltic aristocrat, a violent, headstrong youth posted to the wilds of Siberia and Mongolia before the First World War. After the Bolshevik Revolution, the Baron - now in command of a lethally effective rabble of cavalrymen - conquered Mongolia, the last time in history a country was seized by an army mounted on horses. He was a Kurtz-like figure, slaughtering everyone he suspected of irreligion or of being a Jew. And his is a story that rehearses later horrors in Russia and elsewhere. James Palmer's book is an epic recreation of a forgotten episode and will establish him as a brilliant popular historian.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Edition: Main
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 20 Mar 2008
ISBN 10: 0571230237
ISBN 13: 9780571230235
Book Overview: The Bloody White Baron by James Plamer tells the astonishing lost story of the insane mystic who conquered Mongolia in 1920 and tried to lead a cavalry army against the Bolsheviks in Moscow.

Media Reviews

Economist
James Palmer's account of [Baron Ungern-Sternberg's] brutal and ill-starred life is elegant, waspish and evocative.

Russian Life
This is an epic biography (ranging from WWI battles, to the Civil War, to Manchuria) told in an easy style that infects the reader with curiosity, peeling back myths to reveal the strange and twisted man that was Ungern-Sternberg.

Bookforum
Palmer effectively evokes both the enormous scope and the small absurdities of war.

Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Sunday Telegraph
The rise and fall of Baron Ungern-Sternberg is one of the most demented, savage and grotesque stories of modern times. Palmer, with his special knowledge of Mongolia and enthusiasm for Ungern's blend of lunacy, politics and war, delivers an enjoyable, exciting biography that recounts the crimes and conquests of this monster compellingly, colourfully and with cinematic relish.

Economist
James Palmer's account of [Baron Ungern-Sternberg's] brutal and ill-starred life is elegant, waspish and evocative.

Bookforum
Palmer effectively evokes both the enormous scope and the small absurdities of war.

New York Times
What makes 'The Bloody White Baron' so exceptional is Palmer's lucid scholarship, his ability to make perfect sense of the maelstrom of a forgotten war. This is a brilliant book, and I'm already looking forward to his next.

Author Bio

James Palmer was born in 1981, lives in Beijing and has travelled extensively in East and Central Asia. This is his first book. He brings to it a knowledge of comparative religion as well as a deep fascination with the cultures and history of China and Mongolia.