| Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World |  | Author: Jack Weatherford
Publisher: Topeka Bindery
Category: Book
Buy New: $25.70
Rating:  126 reviews
Sales Rank: 7301730
Media: Library Binding
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.3 x 1
ISBN: 1417748281
Dewey Decimal Number: 950.21092
EAN: 9781417748280
ASIN: 1417748281
Publication Date: March 2005
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Product Description
The name Genghis Khan often conjures the image of a relentless, bloodthirsty barbarian on horseback leading a ruthless band of nomadic warriors in the looting of the civilized world. But the surprising truth is that Genghis Khan was a visionary leader whose conquests joined backward Europe with the flourishing cultures of Asia to trigger a global awakening, an unprecedented explosion of technologies, trade, and ideas. In Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, Jack Weatherford, the only Western scholar ever to be allowed into the Mongols’ “Great Taboo”—Genghis Khan’s homeland and forbidden burial site—tracks the astonishing story of Genghis Khan and his descendants, and their conquest and transformation of the world.
Fighting his way to power on the remote steppes of Mongolia, Genghis Khan developed revolutionary military strategies and weaponry that emphasized rapid attack and siege warfare, which he then brilliantly used to overwhelm opposing armies in Asia, break the back of the Islamic world, and render the armored knights of Europe obsolete. Under Genghis Khan, the Mongol army never numbered more than 100,000 warriors, yet it subjugated more lands and people in twenty-five years than the Romans conquered in four hundred. With an empire that stretched from Siberia to India, from Vietnam to Hungary, and from Korea to the Balkans, the Mongols dramatically redrew the map of the globe, connecting disparate kingdoms into a new world order.
But contrary to popular wisdom, Weatherford reveals that the Mongols were not just masters of conquest, but possessed a genius for progressive and benevolent rule. On every level and from any perspective, the scale and scope
of Genghis Khan’s accomplishments challenge the limits of imagination. Genghis Khan was an innovative leader, the first ruler in many conquered countries to put the power of law above his own power, encourage religious freedom, create public schools, grant diplomatic immunity, abolish torture, and institute free trade. The trade routes he created became lucrative pathways for commerce, but also for ideas, technologies, and expertise that transformed the way people lived. The Mongols introduced the first international paper currency and postal system and developed and spread revolutionary technologies like printing, the cannon, compass, and abacus. They took local foods and products like lemons, carrots, noodles, tea, rugs, playing cards, and pants and turned them into staples of life around the world. The Mongols were the architects of a new way of life at a pivotal time in history.
In Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, Jack Weatherford resurrects the true history of Genghis Khan, from the story of his relentless rise through Mongol tribal culture to the waging of his devastatingly successful wars and the explosion of civilization that the Mongol Empire unleashed. This dazzling work of revisionist history doesn’t just paint an unprecedented portrait of a great leader and his legacy, but challenges us to reconsider how the modern world was made.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 121 more reviews...
 The "Missing Conqueror" along with his long "Missing History" November 19, 2008
In high school, I was always puzzled by the history lessons that taught that the "Barbarians were always sweeping down from the North," and somehow managed to keep conquering the "known civilized world" - even the worlds of Alexander, Caesar and Napoleon. How they were able to do so was never made clear in those lessons. Until this book, the details had always remained murky and were carefully finessed by my teachers with a backhanded dismissal to the effect that the Mongols were little more than bloodthirsty and murderous hordes.
Somehow, although I always thought there was more to this story, for a life time, I allowed this lame explanation to sit uncomfortably in the back of my mind as a partial answer to this rather important question: How indeed had a band of barbarians managed to conquer the entire Known Civilized World? Was it only through brutality and barbarism, as by teachers had taught, or were there other reasons?
Well, this book clears up that mystery and has all the right answers and more. And what a great story it is. It is the story of a warrior-Yak herder who was also a doer on the world stage, as that stage was being shaped. It is the story of how Genghis Khan (Temujin), Armed with the Spirit Banner (a clump of horse hair tied to the end of a spear) as his spiritual totem, and no more than a hundred thousand tribal men, set out to conquer the world and did so in a way that was so innovative and so far ahead of its times that even in his own times, and even among those he conquered, his techniques and strategies must have been as much a mystery to them as to my history teachers.
A superb storyteller and Archaeologist, the author "takes no prisoners" in this excavation and recounting of, lost Mongol history. This is not "sugar-coated" revisionism but cold-blooded explanations and narratives with the historical details to back them up -- all of which have the deep ring of truth.
In conquest after conquest Khan's armies, which had invented the use of, and perfected disciplined and coordinated Calvary blitzkrieg, eight hundred years before Hitler had done so, combined these with speed and surprise to charge across the thirteenth century transforming warfare into an intercontinental affair fought on multiple fronts across thousands of miles.
He redrew the boundaries of the globe and created a new world order by amalgamating and replacing small conquered feudal fiefdoms based on aristocratic privilege, and turned them into larger units based on what we have now come to recognize as fundamental democratic principles, viz; individual merit, loyalty and achievement. These larger political units became international trading centers. They brought with them a need for a new kind of political organization such as international law, fair taxation, diplomatic exchanges, paper currency and a banking system. Unlike other conquerors, Khan did not hoard his bounty but instead plowed it back into the local economies so that it could work its economic magic in ways that even today's modern economist might envy. It was the empire that he left that set the stage for the European renaissance and was on such a firm foundation at his death in 1227, that it continued to grow for another 150 years.
Khan's leadership in reshaping the world is only one of many themes explored by the book. Its centerpiece is the discovery of the lost Secret History of the Mongols and is a parallel detective story deserving of an award on its own merits. Not only does the book explain Mongol history and how it was eventually brought to the light of day, but also how it was decoded and its contents verified. A Fabulous read. No wonder it was on the NY Times bestsellers list. Five Stars
Incredibly Entertaining November 11, 2008
The incredible lives of Genghis Khan and his descendants make this book very entertaining to read. The Mongols had probably changed the world landscape more than anyone else in history. Their empires ranged from China to Russia, including India, Persia, and Iraq. In modern map, that comprises more than 30 countries with over 3 billion people. This book is for everyone who wants to understand the life of one of the greatest men in history and the impact he made to the modern world. I wish all other history books were equally fun to read.
 Great book but a bit overstated November 10, 2008
I loved reading this book. It was enthralling and some parts felt like a movie. But the author does overstate his case at the beginning in which he credits the Mongol Empire, with, among other things, the birth of the Renaissance. You can draw your own conclusions but if you want to read history that feels like a novel, you'll enjoy this book.
Genghis Khan: benevolent despot? November 3, 2008
This is one of the most engaging books on a historical figure that I've ever read. I like the fact that Jack Weatherford boldly states a radical theory --that Genghis Khan and the Mongols literally gave birth to the modern world. When I first saw the title, I was a little taken aback. How could such a dramatic fact be so little known? I was already aware that the Mongols had created the largest empire in history, but not about their many innovations and contributions to the world as we know it.
Appreciating this book and Weatherford's very lively style does not mean I agree with everything in it. I would not presume to argue historical facts, but it seems that Weatherford is highly biased in favor of the Mongols and goes out of his way to compare them favorably to others, especially the Europeans of the time. I prefer an openly biased history to a dull, pseudo-objective one (as pure objectivity probably does not exist), but it's still good to be aware of the biases.
As Weatherford explains it, Genghis Khan was the first true universalist. His empire had the distinct feature of allowing conquered peoples the right to keep their native religions and, at times, even their political systems, so long as they submitted to Mongol rule. Most likely this was done out of a shrewd understanding of politics and power rather than any commitment to a liberal world culture in the modern sense. Still, the result was that trade routes opened up, cultures communicated to an unprecedented degree and disciplines from medicine to warfare advanced as different ethnic groups pooled their knowledge. The Mongols even used paper money, which certainly made trade more efficient and helped to create the modern world economy.
Weatherford presents Genghis Khan as a noble, heroic figure -a kind of benevolent despot. I could not help but wonder how much of Genghis' character and the events of his life are conjectural. Much of the information in this book, as Weatherford tells us, is based on documents only recently translated into modern languages. Scholars have had a hard time over the centuries piecing together Mongol history, as a lot of what we know about them was written by their enemies. I am no historian, but this book did not make clear to me how much we should believe concerning the details of Genghis Khan's life. Historical figures tend to be mythologized. I am talking mainly about details here, such as stories about his childhood; the larger issues are more clear-cut, such as the results of battles and the many innovations that came about during the Mongol empire.
This book can be seen as the flip side of earlier, more conventional perspectives that dismiss the Mongols as mere barbarians. The fact is, Weatherford does describe Mongol behavior that is rather barbaric; he has a tendency to present it in a way that almost makes it seem acceptable --as in (to paraphrase, not quote), "The Mongols only slaughtered a few thousand soldiers and aristocrats, but let the rest of the people who surrendered live." It's true that Europeans, Muslims and Chinese of that time (or ours, for that matter) were ruthless and bloodthirsty in many ways, but the Mongols were not exactly humanitarians either.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history and the way culture has evolved over the centuries. As I said, I like Weatherford's style and the fact that he states his case strongly, even if I sometimes have reservations about his conclusions. This is actually an exciting and entertaining book to read, which is not typical of subjects like this.
Excellent October 13, 2008
I have little to add to most of the glowing reviews here. I'll just say that this is an excellent lay history text that is very engaging. One could perhaps level the accusation that it may seem "revisionist" or that in some areas it presents an overly rosey vision of the Mongols. Personally, I don't believe this to be the case, it seems well balanced and does a good job of putting the Mongols' actions in the context of the times.
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