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The first part of the book was a good read. It made one doubt the honest scholarship in the preceding 2/3 of the book. It covered the life of Genghis Kahn sufficiently to get the sense of the man as a human being rather than the monster history has often shown him to be.However, the last part of the book seems to step out of the history telling mode and into what seemed to me to be a quite biased view of the legacy of Kahn. To me, the last part of the book (maybe the last 1/3), was a waste of time. Thus, to get the full picture of Genghis Kahn, one has to look farther afield than this book only. If this is the only book you read about Genghis Kahn, you will have an incomplete idea of who he was and the impact he had on history.
This book really help broaden my understanding of the middle ages and how the Mongolian empire operated. They made the heavy slow armored knights of Europe absolute. In the end, like most empires the Mongolian world suffered a fragmented world where sons of previous Khans could never co-exist or get along. Mongols crushed any resistance from the slow European armies to Muslims to the Chinese without any trouble. The Muslim world was the most advanced and wealthy and suffered the worse Mongolian wreckage. What they did do was link the worlds of Asia, Europe and Muslim into a global integrated world.
Mongols took the best of each civilization and passed it to the next. The Europe region was the most poor and backwards and benefited the most. It would be very foolish and unwise to not read this book if your a history lover.The author's writes very fluid and concise and easy to follow. Don't want to give out all the great details. Mongols were the greatest warriors of the middle ages. They perfected Chinese siege technology to the highest levels. Just get the book.
Mongols pioneered free trade and international commerce. I never knew the Mongols were the key catalyst in linking the separate middle age kingdoms of the world into the modern world.Mongols never created or invented anything. The empire became weaker and more fragmented. While Genghis was not a saint he pioneered a new world order that would form the modern global world. Really the first empire to do this since the Romans. Finally the Black Death of the 14th Century put in end to most of the great empire. I finished it in a week it was that good and i read slow.
I bought this book because I didn't know much about Genghis Khan. So many of my history lessons in school were taught through a Western perspective. It was the best book purchase ever. The author takes you through the amazing life of Genghis Khan, but, more importantly, you come away with a better knowledge of how the modern world was established. Jack Weatherford writes a book that reads like a novel and shows the other side of the story, without taking sides himself. His years of research as an anthropoligist create a book that sheds light on the mongol tribes, the establishment of countries from Europe to Asia, the creation of money and trade, religious development and tolerance, the minds of great leaders, including strong mongol women.you won't be able to put it down.
Revisionism of this sort is tricky business, particularly when couched in what almost certainly has to be hyperbole. I have to concur with some of the criticisms. A careful reading of his endnotes demonstrates that there really just isn't that much primary information out there other than "Secret History," and many of the sweeping tidbits of praise are based off of secondary source materials, invalidating for me the seriousness of the scholarship put forth. Weatherford's is a good read if you're looking for the basics of Mongol history, but use caution when buying into his revisionist ideas of the glory and influence of their empire. The thesis is interesting, yet the author almost goes too far in his praise of all things Mongol, sometimes basing fairly sweeping generalities on what really isn't much direct evidence. Still, it's a decent read if you read it for the framework history of the Mongols and view his praise with deep skepticism. To be cliche, answers often DO lie in the middle.
He spent time in Mongolia experiencing the life of a steppe nomad while researching Genghis Khan, and after I completed reading this book it was evident that the life and times of Genghis Khan was thoroughly researched and analyzed.The story covered the entire life of Genghis Khan in three parts: the first part describes the time from his birth to his rise as emperor, the second part describes the Mongol World conquests, and the third part focuses on how the Mongolian Dynasty impacted modern society. Although he is much known for the barbaric streak, which is the reason for his rise to be a Mongol leader, he did implement many innovative ideas to enrich and grow his empire. Along the way he also cites primary source references to support his story. Dr. I have always been curious about the person Genghis Khan as a conqueror and an emperor that established trade networks within his empire.
These are some interesting questions and when I saw this book while browsing the bookstore, I had to buy it; I was looking forward to the possibility that the author may answer some of these questions.So I started my journey with Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World written by Jack Weatherford. Furthermore, I found that the author's inclusion of maps throughout the book (before the start of certain chapters), and not just in the beginning of the book made it easier to follow the changing landscape of the Mongolian Empire (without having to flip back to the front of the book) and also the major cities within the empire. There are probably a lot of names you are thinking of, and I am sure that Genghis Khan is at the top of that list or towards to the top. The transition between these sections was fluid and logical.
I gained a good appreciation of the life and times of Genghis Khan. This increased the standard of living throughout the empire. Jack Weatherford is a professor of Anthropology at Macalester College, and he also received an honorary Doctorate degree of Humanities from Chinggis Khaan College in Mongolia. The book was an easy read and I also learned a lot of interesting historical nuggets, which I always enjoy. Their actions cannot be explained according to a specific timetable like the coming and going of so many trains.
Who do you think is the most re-known barbarian in World History. He was a survivor of the Mongolian steppe traditions and this means to overcome many dangerous obstacles, such as defending his life from other potential Mongol warlord leaders. He was not only a survivor; he was successful and made the Mongols a force of their time. For example he established a trading post network throughout the empire, every region of the empire would have to share resources with each other, and the "capital" region would get a form of tax if you want to call it that from all the other regions. At no single, crucial moment in his life did he suddenly acquire his genius at warfare, his ability to inspire the loyalty of his followers, or his unprecedented skill for organizing on a global scale.In each struggle, he combined the new ideas into a constantly changing set of military tactics, strategies, and weapons. Although scholars may designate the beginning and ending of an era with exact precision, great historical events, particularly those that erupt suddenly and violently, build up slowly, and, once having begun, never end. Some questions might be: why is Genghis Khan perceived as a barbarian or what made him do these barbaric acts.
Their efforts linger long after the action faded from view."Overall the book was an easy read and provided good information. The following from the book captures the essence of Genghis Khan concisely:"Genghis Khan's ability to manipulate people and technology represented the experienced knowledge of more than four decades of nearly constant warfare. He never fought the same war twice." The author does answer all the questions I had about Genghis Khan before reading this book and more than that. I wanted to conclude with the following passage from the book, which I thought concisely honed in on the impact of great figures and events is on history:"The great actors of history cannot be neatly tucked between the covers of a book and filed away like so many passed botanical specimens. I would recommend this book to any lover of history and particularly someone that is interested in the history of Genghis Khan.
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