I was very excited for this book and the ambitiousness of its scope, but found myself underwhelmed. It's entertaining and educational, I found myself wanting more in multiple respects. More details, more evidence, more expansive coverage.
The book can't quite seem to decide what it wants to be. Is it a thesis of how the Mongol empire provided foundational technologies and practices of the modern age? Is it a biography of Genghis Khan? Is it a history of the Mongol empire? It turns out to be a haphazard mix of all three, with major shortcomings on all fronts.
As a broader anthropological thesis about the impact of Genghis Khan, Weatherford makes a very compelling case that the Mongol empire contained some then-innovative ASPECTS of modern ideals (e.g. religious tolerance, meritocracy, globalization of commerce, public schooling, paper currency, among others). He convincingly argues that the Mongols spread good ideas from one region of the empire to another, and combined those ideas in novel ways. He doesn't do a very good job of arguing that these innovations formed the basis of the modernity, spread into the broader world, and continued into today. Much of his focus is also on developments after the death of Genghis, particularly on Kubalai. While this makes sense from a historical narrative perspective, it's harder to tie the achievements of Kubalai back to Genghis, when the former took power 33 years after the latter's death, following the reign of three other Great Khans. Weatherford also mostly ignores developments in the other Khan lineages upon Kubalai taking the (disputed) title of Great Khan. He makes some ambitious and expansive claims, but doesn't provide compelling evidence. A few that caught my eyes are that Mongol culture was a foundational precursor to the European Renaissance or that the Nazi's blitzkrieg strategy was based on the study of Mongolian battle tactics. He could well be right, but I wasn't convinced of his conclusions on the basis of the evidence he presented.
As a biography, I didn't get much of a feel for Genghis Khan man outside of his tactical brilliance and shrewdness for exploiting public sentiment. I felt I had a much better sense of the character of Ogodei and Kubalai Khan than Genghis himself. Granted, much of that is probably due to lack of good contemporaneous primary sources due to historical reasons, and Weatherford seems to feel that the main source of truth is The Secret History of the Mongols, a history written either late in Temujin's life or shortly after his death. But much of the Secret History seems like after the fact mythmaking, such as when it claims that Temujin was born with a blood clot in his fist, portending great leadership. Broadly there's a lot of projection and conjecture about how he must have felt and thought. For example Weatherford sometimes posits that perhaps Khan was just trying to protect his family, his tribe, and his way of life, rather than conquer the known world. I don't know. Given the lack of good primary sources, I'd rather he leaned more on secondary sources with the necessary qualifications, or kept it more concise and stuck to the facts. As is, the biographical portions awkwardly straddles the line between idle conjecture and dry "and then this happened".
Finally as far as the broader Mongol empire is concerned, the focus is surprisingly narrow and cursory on the broader conquest. It has a pretty good discussion of broader strategy, tactics, and specific applications, but Weatherford mostly focuses on a couple campaigns (European campaigns of Ogodei Khan, Kubalai's campaigns into Sung China, and Genghis' campaigns in Mongolia, against the Jurched, and against the Khwarizm). Meanwhile he'll casually drop "And by this point the Mongols had dominion over Korea" without explaining how the Mongols adapted their steppe calvary tactics to the mountains and monsoons of Korea, while claiming the Mongols were stopped cold going out of their steppe comfort zone into the tropics of southern India or the forests of Western Europe. He sets up an epic conflict in Egypt an army of with former slav slaves, but kind of cursorily refers to it while suddenly jumping 20 years in to the future before jumping back. And as stated above, he has a pretty heavy focus on Kubalai, only briefly touching on the Ilkhanate in Persia and the Golden Horde in Eastern Europe.
In all, I enjoyed the book and I'm not swayed by other criticism I've seen about whitewashing the character of a despot. I appreciate Weatherford trying to bring more nuance to a much caricatured man and culture. But couldn't help but think that the book is less than the sum of its parts, and could have been much more.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"There is very little time for reading in my new job. But of the few books I've read, my favourite is Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford (Crown Publishers, New York). It's a fascinating book portraying Genghis Khan in a totally new light. It shows that he was a great secular leader, among other things."
—Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India
“Reads like the Iliad. . . Part travelogue, part epic narrative.”
—Washington Post
“It’s hard to think of anyone else who rose from such inauspicious beginnings to something so awesome, except maybe Jesus.”
—Harper’s
“Weatherford’s lively analysis restores the Mongol’s reputation, and it takes wonderful learned detours. . . . Well written and full of suprises.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Weatherford is a fantastic storyteller. . . . [His] portrait of Khan is drawn with sufficiently self-complicating depth. . . . Weatherford’s account gives a generous view of the Mongol conqueror at his best and worst.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
From the Trade Paperback edition.
—Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India
“Reads like the Iliad. . . Part travelogue, part epic narrative.”
—Washington Post
“It’s hard to think of anyone else who rose from such inauspicious beginnings to something so awesome, except maybe Jesus.”
—Harper’s
“Weatherford’s lively analysis restores the Mongol’s reputation, and it takes wonderful learned detours. . . . Well written and full of suprises.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Weatherford is a fantastic storyteller. . . . [His] portrait of Khan is drawn with sufficiently self-complicating depth. . . . Weatherford’s account gives a generous view of the Mongol conqueror at his best and worst.”
—Minneapolis Star Tribune
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From Publishers Weekly
Apart from its inapt title, Genghis Khan dies rather early on in this account and many of the battles are led by his numerous offspring. This book is a successful account of the century of turmoil brought to the world by a then little-known nation of itinerant hunters. In researching this book, Weatherford (Savages and Civilization), a professor of anthropology at Macalaster College, traveled thousands of miles, many on horseback, tracing Genghis Khan's steps into places unseen by Westerners since the khan's death and employing what he calls an "archeology of movement." Weatherford knows the story of the medieval Mongol conquests is gripping enough not to need superfluous embellishmentsâ"the personalities and the wars they waged provide plenty of color and suspense. In just 25 years, in a manner that inspired the blitzkrieg, the Mongols conquered more lands and people than the Romans had in over 400 years. Without pausing for too many digressions, Weatherford's brisk description of the Mongol military campaign and its revolutionary aspects analyzes the rout of imperial China, a siege of Baghdad and the razing of numerous European castles. On a smaller scale, Weatherford also devotes much attention to dismantling our notions of Genghis Khan as a brute. By his telling, the great general was a secular but faithful Christian, a progressive free trader, a regretful failed parent and a loving if polygamous husband. With appreciative descriptions of the sometimes tender tyrant, this chronicle supplies just enough personal and world history to satisfy any reader.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Back Cover
The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in twenty-?ve years than the Romans did in four hundred. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization. Vastly more progressive than his European or Asian counterparts, Genghis Khan abolished torture, granted universal religious freedom, and smashed feudal systems of aristocratic privilege. From the story of his rise through the tribal culture to the explosion of civilization that the Mongol Empire unleashed, this brilliant work of revisionist history is nothing less than the epic story of how the modern world was made.
--This text refers to the paperback edition.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The Blood Clot
There is fire in his eyes and light in his face.
The Secret History of the Mongols
Of the thousands of cities conquered by the Mongols, history only mentions one that Genghis Khan deigned to enter. Usually, when victory became assured, he withdrew with his court to a distant and more pleasant camp while his warriors completed their tasks. On a March day in 1220, the Year of the Dragon, the Mongol conqueror broke with his peculiar tradition by leading his cavalry into the center of the newly conquered city of Bukhara, one of the most important cities belonging to the sultan of Khwarizm in what is now Uzbekistan. Although neither the capital nor the major commercial city, Bukhara occupied an exalted emotional position throughout the Muslim world as Noble Bukhara, the center of religious piety known by the epithet "the ornament and delight to all Islam." Knowing fully the propaganda value of his actions by conquering and entering the city, Genghis Khan rode triumphantly through the city gates, past the warren of wooden houses and vendors' stalls, to the large cluster of stone and brick buildings at the center of the city.
His entry into Bukhara followed the successful conclusion of possibly the most audacious surprise attack in military history. While one part of his army took the direct route from Mongolia to attack the sultan's border cities head-on, he had secretly pulled and pushed another division of warriors over a distance longer than any other army had ever covered--two thousand miles of desert, mountains, and steppe--to appear deep behind enemy lines, where least expected. Even trade caravans avoided the Kyzyl Kum, the fabled Red Desert, by detouring hundreds of miles to avoid it; and that fact, of course, was precisely why Genghis Khan chose to attack from that direction. By befriending the nomads of the area, he was able to lead his army on a hitherto unknown track through the stone and sand desert.
His targeted city of Bukhara stood at the center of a fertile oasis astride one of the tributaries of the Amu Darya inhabited mostly by Tajik or Persian people, but ruled by Turkic tribesmen in the newly created empire of Khwarizm, one of the many transitory empires of the era. The sultan of Khwarizm had, in a grievously fatal mistake, provoked the enmity of Genghis Khan by looting a Mongol trade caravan and disfiguring the faces of Mongol ambassadors sent to negotiate peaceful commerce. Although nearly sixty years old, when Genghis Khan heard of the attack on his men, he did not hesitate to summon his disciplined and experienced army once again to their mounts and to charge down the road of war.
In contrast to almost every major army in history, the Mongols traveled lightly, without a supply train. By waiting until the coldest months to make the desert crossing, men and horses required less water. Dew also formed during this season, thereby stimulating the growth of some grass that provided grazing for horses and attracted game that the men eagerly hunted for their own sustenance. Instead of transporting slow-moving siege engines and heavy equipment with them, the Mongols carried a faster-moving engineer corps that could build whatever was needed on the spot from available materials. When the Mongols came to the first trees after crossing the vast desert, they cut them down and made them into ladders, siege engines, and other instruments for their attack.
When the advance guard spotted the first small settlement after leaving the desert, the rapidly moving detachment immediately changed pace, moving now in a slow, lumbering procession, as though they were merchants coming to trade, rather than with the speed of warriors on the attack. The hostile force nonchalantly ambled up to the gates of the town before the residents realized who they were and sounded an alarm.
Upon emerging unexpectedly from the desert, Genghis Khan did not race to attack Bukhara immediately. He knew that no reinforcements could leave the border cities under attack by his army, and he therefore had time to play on the surprise in a tortured manipulation of public fear and hope. The objective of such tactics was simple and always the same: to frighten the enemy into surrendering before an actual battle began. By first capturing several small towns in the vicinity, Genghis Khan's army set many local people to flight toward Bukhara as refugees who not only filled the city but greatly increased the level of terror in it. By striking deeply behind the enemy lines, the Mongols immediately created havoc and panic throughout the kingdom. As the Persian chronicler Ata-Malik Juvaini described his approach, when the people saw the countryside all around them "choked with horsemen and the air black as night with the dust of cavalry, fright and panic overcame then, and fear and dread prevailed." In preparing the psychological attack on a city, Genghis Khan began with two examples of what awaited the people. He offered generous terms of surrender to the outlying communities, and the ones that accepted the terms and joined the Mongols received great leniency. In the words of the Persian chronicler, "whoever yields and submits to them is safe and free from the terror and disgrace of their severity." Those that refused received exceptionally harsh treatment, as the Mongols herded the captives before them to be used as cannon fodder in the next attack.
The tactic panicked the Turkic defenders of Bukhara. Leaving only about five hundred soldiers behind to man the citadel of Bukhara, the remaining army of twenty thousand soldiers fled in what they thought was still time before the main Mongol army arrived. By abandoning their fortress and dispersing in flight, they sprung Genghis Khan's trap, and the Mongol warriors, who were already stationed in wait for the fleeing soldiers, cut them down at a nearly leisurely pace.
The civilian population of Bukhara surrendered and opened the city gates, but the small contingent of defiant soldiers remained in their citadel, where they hoped that the massive walls would allow them to hold out indefinitely against any siege. To more carefully assess the overall situation, Genghis Khan made his unprecedented decision to enter the city. One of his first acts on reaching the center of Bukhara, or upon accepting the surrender of any people, was to summon them to bring fodder for his horses. Feeding the Mongol warriors and their horses was taken as a sign of submission by the conquered; more important, by receiving the food and fodder, Genghis Khan signaled his acceptance of the people as vassals entitled to Mongol protection as well as subject to his command.
From the time of his central Asian conquests, we have one of the few written descriptions of Genghis Khan, who was about sixty years old. The Persian chronicler Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani, who was far less kindly disposed toward the Mongols than the chronicler Juvaini, described him as "a man of tall stature, of vigorous build, robust in body, the hair on his face scanty and turned white, with cats' eyes, possessed of dedicated energy, discernment, genius, and understanding, awe-striking, a butcher, just, resolute, an overthrower of enemies, intrepid, sanguinary, and cruel." Because of his uncanny ability to destroy cities and conquer armies many times the size of his own, the chronicler also goes on to declare that Genghis Khan was "adept at magic and deception, and some of the devils were his friends."
Eyewitnesses reported that upon reaching the center of Bukhara, Genghis Khan rode up to the large mosque and asked if, since it was the largest building in the city, it was the home of the sultan. When informed that it was the house of God, not the sultan, he said nothing. For the Mongols, the one God was the Eternal Blue Sky that stretched from horizon to horizon in all four directions. God presided over the whole earth; he could not be cooped up in a house of stone like a prisoner or a caged animal, nor, as the city people claimed, could his words be captured and confined inside the covers of a book. In his own experience, Genghis Khan had often felt the presence and heard the voice of God speaking directly to him in the vast open air of the mountains in his homeland, and by following those words, he had become the conqueror of great cities and huge nations.
Genghis Khan dismounted from his horse in order to walk into the great mosque, the only such building he is known to have ever entered in his life. Upon entering, he ordered that the scholars and clerics feed his horses, freeing them from further danger and placing them under his protection, as he did with almost all religious personnel who came under his control. Next, he summoned the 280 richest men of the city to the mosque. Despite his limited experience inside city walls, Genghis Khan still had a keen grasp of the working of human emotion and sentiment. Before the assembled men in the mosque, Genghis Khan took a few steps up the pulpit stairs, then turned to face the elite of Bukhara. Through interpreters, he lectured them sternly on the sins and misdeeds of their sultan and themselves. It was not the common people who were to blame for these failures; rather, "it is the great ones among you who have committed these sins. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you." He then gave each rich man into the control of one of his Mongol warriors, who would go with him and collect his treasure. He admonished his rich prisoners not to bother showing them the wealth above the ground; the Mongols could find that without assistance. He wanted them to guide them only to their hidden or buried treasure.
Having begun the systematic plundering of the city, Genghis Khan turned his attention to attacking the Turkic warriors still defiantly sealed inside the citadel of Bukhara. Although not familiar with the Mongols in particular, the people in the urbanized oases of central Asian cities like Bukhara and Samarkand had seen many b... --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
There is fire in his eyes and light in his face.
The Secret History of the Mongols
Of the thousands of cities conquered by the Mongols, history only mentions one that Genghis Khan deigned to enter. Usually, when victory became assured, he withdrew with his court to a distant and more pleasant camp while his warriors completed their tasks. On a March day in 1220, the Year of the Dragon, the Mongol conqueror broke with his peculiar tradition by leading his cavalry into the center of the newly conquered city of Bukhara, one of the most important cities belonging to the sultan of Khwarizm in what is now Uzbekistan. Although neither the capital nor the major commercial city, Bukhara occupied an exalted emotional position throughout the Muslim world as Noble Bukhara, the center of religious piety known by the epithet "the ornament and delight to all Islam." Knowing fully the propaganda value of his actions by conquering and entering the city, Genghis Khan rode triumphantly through the city gates, past the warren of wooden houses and vendors' stalls, to the large cluster of stone and brick buildings at the center of the city.
His entry into Bukhara followed the successful conclusion of possibly the most audacious surprise attack in military history. While one part of his army took the direct route from Mongolia to attack the sultan's border cities head-on, he had secretly pulled and pushed another division of warriors over a distance longer than any other army had ever covered--two thousand miles of desert, mountains, and steppe--to appear deep behind enemy lines, where least expected. Even trade caravans avoided the Kyzyl Kum, the fabled Red Desert, by detouring hundreds of miles to avoid it; and that fact, of course, was precisely why Genghis Khan chose to attack from that direction. By befriending the nomads of the area, he was able to lead his army on a hitherto unknown track through the stone and sand desert.
His targeted city of Bukhara stood at the center of a fertile oasis astride one of the tributaries of the Amu Darya inhabited mostly by Tajik or Persian people, but ruled by Turkic tribesmen in the newly created empire of Khwarizm, one of the many transitory empires of the era. The sultan of Khwarizm had, in a grievously fatal mistake, provoked the enmity of Genghis Khan by looting a Mongol trade caravan and disfiguring the faces of Mongol ambassadors sent to negotiate peaceful commerce. Although nearly sixty years old, when Genghis Khan heard of the attack on his men, he did not hesitate to summon his disciplined and experienced army once again to their mounts and to charge down the road of war.
In contrast to almost every major army in history, the Mongols traveled lightly, without a supply train. By waiting until the coldest months to make the desert crossing, men and horses required less water. Dew also formed during this season, thereby stimulating the growth of some grass that provided grazing for horses and attracted game that the men eagerly hunted for their own sustenance. Instead of transporting slow-moving siege engines and heavy equipment with them, the Mongols carried a faster-moving engineer corps that could build whatever was needed on the spot from available materials. When the Mongols came to the first trees after crossing the vast desert, they cut them down and made them into ladders, siege engines, and other instruments for their attack.
When the advance guard spotted the first small settlement after leaving the desert, the rapidly moving detachment immediately changed pace, moving now in a slow, lumbering procession, as though they were merchants coming to trade, rather than with the speed of warriors on the attack. The hostile force nonchalantly ambled up to the gates of the town before the residents realized who they were and sounded an alarm.
Upon emerging unexpectedly from the desert, Genghis Khan did not race to attack Bukhara immediately. He knew that no reinforcements could leave the border cities under attack by his army, and he therefore had time to play on the surprise in a tortured manipulation of public fear and hope. The objective of such tactics was simple and always the same: to frighten the enemy into surrendering before an actual battle began. By first capturing several small towns in the vicinity, Genghis Khan's army set many local people to flight toward Bukhara as refugees who not only filled the city but greatly increased the level of terror in it. By striking deeply behind the enemy lines, the Mongols immediately created havoc and panic throughout the kingdom. As the Persian chronicler Ata-Malik Juvaini described his approach, when the people saw the countryside all around them "choked with horsemen and the air black as night with the dust of cavalry, fright and panic overcame then, and fear and dread prevailed." In preparing the psychological attack on a city, Genghis Khan began with two examples of what awaited the people. He offered generous terms of surrender to the outlying communities, and the ones that accepted the terms and joined the Mongols received great leniency. In the words of the Persian chronicler, "whoever yields and submits to them is safe and free from the terror and disgrace of their severity." Those that refused received exceptionally harsh treatment, as the Mongols herded the captives before them to be used as cannon fodder in the next attack.
The tactic panicked the Turkic defenders of Bukhara. Leaving only about five hundred soldiers behind to man the citadel of Bukhara, the remaining army of twenty thousand soldiers fled in what they thought was still time before the main Mongol army arrived. By abandoning their fortress and dispersing in flight, they sprung Genghis Khan's trap, and the Mongol warriors, who were already stationed in wait for the fleeing soldiers, cut them down at a nearly leisurely pace.
The civilian population of Bukhara surrendered and opened the city gates, but the small contingent of defiant soldiers remained in their citadel, where they hoped that the massive walls would allow them to hold out indefinitely against any siege. To more carefully assess the overall situation, Genghis Khan made his unprecedented decision to enter the city. One of his first acts on reaching the center of Bukhara, or upon accepting the surrender of any people, was to summon them to bring fodder for his horses. Feeding the Mongol warriors and their horses was taken as a sign of submission by the conquered; more important, by receiving the food and fodder, Genghis Khan signaled his acceptance of the people as vassals entitled to Mongol protection as well as subject to his command.
From the time of his central Asian conquests, we have one of the few written descriptions of Genghis Khan, who was about sixty years old. The Persian chronicler Minhaj al-Siraj Juzjani, who was far less kindly disposed toward the Mongols than the chronicler Juvaini, described him as "a man of tall stature, of vigorous build, robust in body, the hair on his face scanty and turned white, with cats' eyes, possessed of dedicated energy, discernment, genius, and understanding, awe-striking, a butcher, just, resolute, an overthrower of enemies, intrepid, sanguinary, and cruel." Because of his uncanny ability to destroy cities and conquer armies many times the size of his own, the chronicler also goes on to declare that Genghis Khan was "adept at magic and deception, and some of the devils were his friends."
Eyewitnesses reported that upon reaching the center of Bukhara, Genghis Khan rode up to the large mosque and asked if, since it was the largest building in the city, it was the home of the sultan. When informed that it was the house of God, not the sultan, he said nothing. For the Mongols, the one God was the Eternal Blue Sky that stretched from horizon to horizon in all four directions. God presided over the whole earth; he could not be cooped up in a house of stone like a prisoner or a caged animal, nor, as the city people claimed, could his words be captured and confined inside the covers of a book. In his own experience, Genghis Khan had often felt the presence and heard the voice of God speaking directly to him in the vast open air of the mountains in his homeland, and by following those words, he had become the conqueror of great cities and huge nations.
Genghis Khan dismounted from his horse in order to walk into the great mosque, the only such building he is known to have ever entered in his life. Upon entering, he ordered that the scholars and clerics feed his horses, freeing them from further danger and placing them under his protection, as he did with almost all religious personnel who came under his control. Next, he summoned the 280 richest men of the city to the mosque. Despite his limited experience inside city walls, Genghis Khan still had a keen grasp of the working of human emotion and sentiment. Before the assembled men in the mosque, Genghis Khan took a few steps up the pulpit stairs, then turned to face the elite of Bukhara. Through interpreters, he lectured them sternly on the sins and misdeeds of their sultan and themselves. It was not the common people who were to blame for these failures; rather, "it is the great ones among you who have committed these sins. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you." He then gave each rich man into the control of one of his Mongol warriors, who would go with him and collect his treasure. He admonished his rich prisoners not to bother showing them the wealth above the ground; the Mongols could find that without assistance. He wanted them to guide them only to their hidden or buried treasure.
Having begun the systematic plundering of the city, Genghis Khan turned his attention to attacking the Turkic warriors still defiantly sealed inside the citadel of Bukhara. Although not familiar with the Mongols in particular, the people in the urbanized oases of central Asian cities like Bukhara and Samarkand had seen many b... --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–An interesting, thought-provoking account of the conqueror's life and legacy. From his early years as the son of a widow abandoned by her clan, he showed remarkable ability as a charismatic leader and unifier. In 25 years, his army amassed a greater empire than the Romans had been able to achieve in 400. Whether judged on population or land area, it was twice as large as that of any other individual in history. This colorful retelling discusses many of the innovations that marked Khan's rule and contributed to his success. Although his name is now erroneously associated with terror and slaughter, he showed surprising restraint during a time when few others in power did. He allowed freedom of religion, encouraged free trade, developed a paper currency, and observed diplomatic immunity. As he encountered new cultures, he adopted or adapted their best practices, and constantly updated his military strategies. Although Khan's death occurs at the midpoint of this book, the tales of his survivors' exploits and the gradual fall of the Mongol dynasties are engaging and informative. Weatherford's efforts to credit Genghis Khan and his descendants with the ideas and innovations that created the Renaissance are a bit bewildering, but readers will be left with a new appreciation of a maligned culture, and a desire to learn more.–Kathy Tewell, Chantilly Regional Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
When the Mongols, led by Genghis Khan, exploded out of the central Asian steppes in the early thirteenth century, they began the acquisition of the largest land empire in history. Eventually, the Mongol Empire extended from the Pacific to the Mediterranean and from northern Siberia to Southeast Asia. Yet the West focuses primarily on Mongol savagery. In his revisionist history of the empire, anthropology professor Weatherford uses the so-called Secret History, a long-suppressed Mongol text, to balance the scales. He certainly makes some telling points. The Mongols unified disparate lands, maintained and even expanded east-west trade routes, and made possible eventual contact between Europe and East Asia. Although Mongol rulers were not innovators, Weatherford convincingly asserts that, like the Romans, they effectively used the talents of their subject peoples. Unfortunately, Weatherford is prone to exaggeration. He too easily accepts unverifiable legends as facts, and he gives the Mongols unwarranted credit for fostering the European Enlightenment. Still, this is a well-written and usually credible work that provides a necessary reassessment of the legacy of this vast empire. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
JACK WEATHERFORD is a professor of anthropology at Macalester College in Minnesota. He is a specialist in tribal people and the author of Indian Givers, Native Roots, Savages and Civilization, and The History of Money.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From AudioFile
Weatherford's well-researched history of the twelfth-century Mongol conqueror and his impact on the generations that followed is a rich and fully engaging narrative, and Jonathan Davis delivers it to its best effect. The events themselves are dramatic, and the story of the Mongol conquest is one that every history buff should learn, nowhere better than here. Weatherford's admiration for Genghis and his firsthand knowledge of many of the sites important in Mongol history give this text an immediacy and a visual quality that are enhanced by Davis's presentation. When the narrative begins to lag in its final hour or two as it moves farther from the twelfth century, Davis's crisp pace maintains the listener's interest to the end. An informative and provocative work of popular history. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Product details
- Publication Date : March 22, 2005
- File Size : 3198 KB
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print Length : 352 pages
- Publisher : Broadway Books (March 22, 2005)
- ASIN : B000FCK206
- Language: : English
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Enhanced Typesetting : Enabled
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Lending : Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank: #17,936 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
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4.6 out of 5
1,713 global ratings
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Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2018
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Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2018
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Totally changed my perception of geopolitics-really! This book, thoroughly researched, blasts the myths surrounding Ghenghis Khan and demonstrates his wisdom and courage as a leader. Perhaps more importantly, it contributes invaluable knowledge about the role of the Mongols in reshaping the world to forge trade routes, developing societies where many religions coexisted peacefully and exploding many of our prior myths about the savagery of the Mongol Horde. One of the most fascinating books on history I have read.
4.0 out of 5 stars
An interestng, albiet, heavily revisionist piece on Genghis and the Mongol Empire.
Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2015Verified Purchase
A well written and well read (in terms of the audio version) book on the Mongol Empire romthe time of Genghis Khan through the reign of Kubulai Khan. This book gives great detail into the early life of Tenmugen and the struggles and realities of living during a tumultuous period. The book isnt without its faults however, the author seems to go to great lengths to portray Genghis and the Mongols as bringers of peace and welfare. At one point he even goes so far as to suggest that a four year gap in the documentation of public executions must suggest that the Mongols did not execute. It seems like a rash assumption considering that the amount of death that followed the Mongol hoard would make Hitler jealous. All together it is an interesting read but please be aware that it comes through a very pro Mongol lens.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beyond "MASTER-PIECE" Work- Reshapes "Image" Genghis Khan As More A Unifier/Innovator...
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2018Verified Purchase
This is a "beyond" MASTER-PIECE work not only on Genghis Khan, but on whole array of different subjects. This is simply evidenced by the "authors" stating that the entire local region, in what is today Mongolia, where Genghis was born and started his empire was sealed from outside visitation after his death and maintained that way by Chinese-Soviet era up to Mongolian Independence. A reader can take-away, family relations, alliance formation, trade, economics, strategy, and even engineering... that Genghis "mastered" and "assimilated" from various nations and cultures he conquered. Genghis expected not only his "warriors" and own "cultural" subjects to "contribute" to his Empire, but also those nations' citizens he assimilated and protected as well to the "greater" good of the Mogul Empire!
Much, as the author points out, of the inner workings of Genghis "court" and family are still a mystery today, but he must have had some very simply remembered "unifying-underlying" creed/credo/method he not only rallied and inspired the "disparate" tribes, and nations of his vast Empire with, and made them "aware' that they were part of something "larger" than themselves and despite differences in race, creed , and religion , part of one "cohesive" Nation.
That being stated, it reminds me of article in “VFW Magazine ~ September 2018 ~ War Horses for Veterans Single Issue Magazine – 2018” by VFW Staff (Author) [at Amazon.com web-address: https://www.amazon.com/Magazine-September-2018-Horses-Veterans/dp/B07H3CFJ5Z/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid;=1536741446&sr;=8-2&keywords;=vfw+magazine+2018 ] about “veteran’s values” on page number-14 of "hard copy" version. Below is quoted a list of the VFW recommended "veterans’ values":
“1. I am an American Veteran.
2. I proudly served my country.
3. I live the values I learned in the military.
4. I continue to serve my community, my country, and my fellow veterans.
5. I maintain my physical and physical discipline.
6. I continue to lead and improve.
7. I make a difference.
8. I honor and remember my fallen comrades.”
Perhaps like Genghis Kahn, whom the author more than makes the point of, gets’ not only a very bad “historical “reputation, but a “huge” misunderstanding of his contributions made to the advancement of ALL, up to, and including, the modern era! PERHAPS, like the VFW and other Veterans Service Organizations (VSO’s), etc… Genghis had some simple “credo” such as the US VFW “proposed” veteran’s creed, for not only a new "generation" of combat veterans, but their forebears of all major US Conflicts- as well!
Not too long-ago, as a Wounded Warrior, whom went to Law School- minus both legs- and got themselves elected to the US Congress has put it "we must own our problems!" Think this individuals personal story, of overcoming adversity, as well as their "credo” are relevant to not only other "wounded warriors" but the entire Nation of the United States of America, or otherwise- perhaps, the "greatest nation on earth" might simply cease to be one day.... ???? Furthermore, I remember a story another veteran- attempting similar- going back to school in early 2000's, that whole lot of veterans of all ages trying to get "degrees" in things like engineering, computers, etc... and this "vet" went back in later 2000"s and hardly saw another single US veteran let alone very many US "student's attempting this "difficult" task!
It simply might prove useful, taking cue off not only the VFW, from proposed credo above, but other organizations as well, such as Boy-Girl Scouts of America, US Army Ranger creed, etc... if the US as a "unified-nation,” just as Genghis Kahn’s “nation” was of different individual identities, adopted something for all its Citizen’s along a similar vein? One simply does not have to serve in the United States Military, to in fact serve the United States- or their Nation and community… is as oft believed! There are numerous other ways to “serve” - such as simply “working” a meaningful job, etc... So, with all that in mind, as one simply should not recommend something, without hopefully a recommended "workable" solution, below is a working “idea” of a US Citizen "Creed-Values” that wonder what Genghis Kahn, if alive today, and others would think of(?):
Recommended US Citizen Values/Creed Below:
1. I am a citizen of the United States of America.
2. I am proud of my country, fellow US Citizens, my flag, and the values they all collectively represent.
3. I live the values imbued in the United States Constitution and all its amendments and will continually strive to learn as much as possible about my Nation.
4. I strive to serve the United States by serving my community, my fellow citizens, in both peace and war.
5. I will strive to maintain a healthy lifestyle and maintain my mental and physical health and well-being.
6. I will attempt to do the best I can at all I endeavor both in personal as well as professional matters with honesty, integrity and decorum to the extent possible.
7. I seek both personal, community, business, and national continual improvement as long as I live.
8. I honor all those, whom in either service to the nation, or local community, made the ultimate sacrifice.
9. When both at home and abroad, I am a personal ambassador of the United States and will honor the recognized legitimate traditions and customs of others never once forgetting I am a US Citizen.
Well, just an idea, and perhaps something Genghis Kahn himself, had to unify his “culturally” diverse Nation! Both the author of “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” as well as the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) “out-did” themselves with their words……
Must Read by all “US Citizen!!!!!”
Much, as the author points out, of the inner workings of Genghis "court" and family are still a mystery today, but he must have had some very simply remembered "unifying-underlying" creed/credo/method he not only rallied and inspired the "disparate" tribes, and nations of his vast Empire with, and made them "aware' that they were part of something "larger" than themselves and despite differences in race, creed , and religion , part of one "cohesive" Nation.
That being stated, it reminds me of article in “VFW Magazine ~ September 2018 ~ War Horses for Veterans Single Issue Magazine – 2018” by VFW Staff (Author) [at Amazon.com web-address: https://www.amazon.com/Magazine-September-2018-Horses-Veterans/dp/B07H3CFJ5Z/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid;=1536741446&sr;=8-2&keywords;=vfw+magazine+2018 ] about “veteran’s values” on page number-14 of "hard copy" version. Below is quoted a list of the VFW recommended "veterans’ values":
“1. I am an American Veteran.
2. I proudly served my country.
3. I live the values I learned in the military.
4. I continue to serve my community, my country, and my fellow veterans.
5. I maintain my physical and physical discipline.
6. I continue to lead and improve.
7. I make a difference.
8. I honor and remember my fallen comrades.”
Perhaps like Genghis Kahn, whom the author more than makes the point of, gets’ not only a very bad “historical “reputation, but a “huge” misunderstanding of his contributions made to the advancement of ALL, up to, and including, the modern era! PERHAPS, like the VFW and other Veterans Service Organizations (VSO’s), etc… Genghis had some simple “credo” such as the US VFW “proposed” veteran’s creed, for not only a new "generation" of combat veterans, but their forebears of all major US Conflicts- as well!
Not too long-ago, as a Wounded Warrior, whom went to Law School- minus both legs- and got themselves elected to the US Congress has put it "we must own our problems!" Think this individuals personal story, of overcoming adversity, as well as their "credo” are relevant to not only other "wounded warriors" but the entire Nation of the United States of America, or otherwise- perhaps, the "greatest nation on earth" might simply cease to be one day.... ???? Furthermore, I remember a story another veteran- attempting similar- going back to school in early 2000's, that whole lot of veterans of all ages trying to get "degrees" in things like engineering, computers, etc... and this "vet" went back in later 2000"s and hardly saw another single US veteran let alone very many US "student's attempting this "difficult" task!
It simply might prove useful, taking cue off not only the VFW, from proposed credo above, but other organizations as well, such as Boy-Girl Scouts of America, US Army Ranger creed, etc... if the US as a "unified-nation,” just as Genghis Kahn’s “nation” was of different individual identities, adopted something for all its Citizen’s along a similar vein? One simply does not have to serve in the United States Military, to in fact serve the United States- or their Nation and community… is as oft believed! There are numerous other ways to “serve” - such as simply “working” a meaningful job, etc... So, with all that in mind, as one simply should not recommend something, without hopefully a recommended "workable" solution, below is a working “idea” of a US Citizen "Creed-Values” that wonder what Genghis Kahn, if alive today, and others would think of(?):
Recommended US Citizen Values/Creed Below:
1. I am a citizen of the United States of America.
2. I am proud of my country, fellow US Citizens, my flag, and the values they all collectively represent.
3. I live the values imbued in the United States Constitution and all its amendments and will continually strive to learn as much as possible about my Nation.
4. I strive to serve the United States by serving my community, my fellow citizens, in both peace and war.
5. I will strive to maintain a healthy lifestyle and maintain my mental and physical health and well-being.
6. I will attempt to do the best I can at all I endeavor both in personal as well as professional matters with honesty, integrity and decorum to the extent possible.
7. I seek both personal, community, business, and national continual improvement as long as I live.
8. I honor all those, whom in either service to the nation, or local community, made the ultimate sacrifice.
9. When both at home and abroad, I am a personal ambassador of the United States and will honor the recognized legitimate traditions and customs of others never once forgetting I am a US Citizen.
Well, just an idea, and perhaps something Genghis Kahn himself, had to unify his “culturally” diverse Nation! Both the author of “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” as well as the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) “out-did” themselves with their words……
Must Read by all “US Citizen!!!!!”
Top reviews from other countries
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Richard
3.0 out of 5 stars
Vague but mildly interesting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2019Verified Purchase
I never knew all that much about Genghis Khan which is why I bought this book.
As regards history, it’s difficult to know what is true and what is not. In fact, one could go to a public event, as I did recently, and find that all recorded information on it is wildly inaccurate, incomplete, and heavily biased. Go back 800 years and it becomes a virtual impossibility to produce a piece of historical writing that holds any degree of accuracy and often any recorded history, such as it may be, is biased by being recorded by those who wished things to be recorded a certain way and subsequently seen through the subjective prisms of those who subsequently try to present it to a modern reader hundreds of years after supposed events occurred.
Having said the above, there were times I found it entertaining and the epic story of a man who went from being a slave to a great conqueror is quite a story.
There were places where I felt the story was perhaps trying to present ideological ideas of the modern world rather than presenting things as they were.
At times I felt like it just jumped from one fact to another which hindered my flow of reading and made it difficult for me to concentrate on it for as long as I usually would on books in general.
I expect this book took a lot of effort to write but that the central ideas of how Khan impacted the modern world could have been laid out more lucidly. At times I found the book somewhat incoherent and dry, though it goes to certain lengths not to be which reminded me slightly of Hollywood blockbusters like Aladdin or Gladiator.
Is it worth a look? Maybe. I guess these things are subjective. I tend to consistently find “New York Times Bestseller” books a bit dull though.
As regards history, it’s difficult to know what is true and what is not. In fact, one could go to a public event, as I did recently, and find that all recorded information on it is wildly inaccurate, incomplete, and heavily biased. Go back 800 years and it becomes a virtual impossibility to produce a piece of historical writing that holds any degree of accuracy and often any recorded history, such as it may be, is biased by being recorded by those who wished things to be recorded a certain way and subsequently seen through the subjective prisms of those who subsequently try to present it to a modern reader hundreds of years after supposed events occurred.
Having said the above, there were times I found it entertaining and the epic story of a man who went from being a slave to a great conqueror is quite a story.
There were places where I felt the story was perhaps trying to present ideological ideas of the modern world rather than presenting things as they were.
At times I felt like it just jumped from one fact to another which hindered my flow of reading and made it difficult for me to concentrate on it for as long as I usually would on books in general.
I expect this book took a lot of effort to write but that the central ideas of how Khan impacted the modern world could have been laid out more lucidly. At times I found the book somewhat incoherent and dry, though it goes to certain lengths not to be which reminded me slightly of Hollywood blockbusters like Aladdin or Gladiator.
Is it worth a look? Maybe. I guess these things are subjective. I tend to consistently find “New York Times Bestseller” books a bit dull though.
3 people found this helpful
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woz
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Biggest Empire
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 9, 2018Verified Purchase
this book is one of the best that I have ever read, I learnt so much about Gengis Khan and the Mongols he conquered an area as large as the whole of North America and never lost a single battle, the modern Asian Countries boundaries owe a lot to his battles i.e. China, India and Russia although he never lost a battle he was outnumbered on every occasion, I purchased this book for my daughters partners birthday in a couple of weeks time, hopefully he will enjoy reading it as much as I did.
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wezg
4.0 out of 5 stars
wezgbooks wordpress review
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 23, 2015Verified Purchase
It only took me three days to read this relatively thin paperback. Genghis Khan had a huge role in history and there is rather a dearth of information on him, considering the massive scale of the Mongol Empire he created. At its peak, it ran from the Pacific in the East to the Mediterranean in the West, bigger than the Roman Empire and that carved by Alexander the Great. The author based his account primarily on new revelations prompted by his research team re-examining the Secret History of The Mongols, an ancient document which was very difficult to translate and had laid hidden for many years due to the political upheavals in the region. Genghis has a mixed reputation throughout history, with the likes of Chaucer elevating him and Voltaire and Montesquieu later deriding him. The Mongols uniquely placed world culture in a position to develop into what we now know, with international trade, religious tolerance and mass migration of peoples. The Mongols are perhaps looked down upon for not bequeathing us anything unique from their own culture, but rather amalgamating and developing existing ideas from the races and civilisations of other people’s they conquered. They practised some novel ideas for the time such as diplomatic immunity, not torturing prisoners, allowing all religions to flourish under the empire with an emphasis on secular law. The book covers the rise of Temujin from his downtrodden youth, to the height of his power and then looks at the maintenance of his legacy after his death, with the separation of the great Khanate into four primary regions. It is a great look at medieval history from an Asian perspective and has enlightened me about various subjects from that time and added to knowledge I already had on the Crusades, Marco Polo, the Black Death and The European Renaissance. The decline of the Empire was sudden and could only arise through a natural disaster which engulfed the whole world, in the Great Plague. What would have occurred had this devastating illness never erupted? The book was brief and precise and covered a vast array of topics though in my opinion for such a good subject matter, it could have been more expansive in volume. It has given me a taste for Genghis Khan and I shall try to dig out some more similar biographies on the great Steppes people. https://wezgbooks.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/review-genghis-khan-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world/
8 people found this helpful
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Kate
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great read - so informative
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 29, 2019Verified Purchase
I never knew there was so much about Genghis Khan. How do we not come across him at school when he has influenced our society so much. I haven't read any other books on him so I can't compare but I thoroughly enjoyed this one - and I'm not interested in history or biographies normally but this was easy to read.
2 people found this helpful
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Bookworm
5.0 out of 5 stars
The truth though comes out in this brilliantly described and honest look at the true life and ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 16, 2014Verified Purchase
This is one of those type of books that contradicts the archetypical description of a so called despot.The truth though comes out in this brilliantly described and honest look at the true life and times of a leader who ranks atop of the list of so called world leaders?The outstanding and some what shocking difference is that this man did all his outstanding conquests when europe was still burning witches.The details of this mans achievements and his intellectual understanding of the option of a bloodless conquest put the rest of the eurasian empires on the same level of stone age man.A brilliant book that clears the mud from the water. Well Done.
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