Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

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Editorial Reviews

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.

Customer Reviews

Kahn Polemic

Reviewed by Carol Ritter, 2010-03-07

The first part of the book was a good read. 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. It made one doubt the honest scholarship in the preceding 2/3 of the book. 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.

Great read!!!!!!!!!!

Reviewed by David, 2010-02-28

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. This book really help broaden my understanding of the middle ages and how the Mongolian empire operated.
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. 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. The Muslim world was the most advanced and wealthy and suffered the worse Mongolian wreckage.
While Genghis was not a saint he pioneered a new world order that would form the modern global world. Mongols pioneered free trade and international commerce. Really the first empire to do this since the Romans.

Mongols were the greatest warriors of the middle ages. They made the heavy slow armored knights of Europe absolute. They perfected Chinese siege technology to the highest levels. Mongols crushed any resistance from the slow European armies to Muslims to the Chinese without any trouble.
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. The empire became weaker and more fragmented. Finally the Black Death of the 14th Century put in end to most of the great empire.
Don't want to give out all the great details . Just get the book. I finished it in a week it was that good and i read slow.

Best-Written and Most Informative journey through history

Reviewed by Sheila M. Owen, 2010-02-19

I bought this book because I didn't know much about Genghis Khan. 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. So many of my history lessons in school were taught through a Western perspective. 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.

Good, but flawed

Reviewed by Jason Zimmerman, 2010-02-15

I have to concur with some of the criticisms. 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. Revisionism of this sort is tricky business, particularly when couched in what almost certainly has to be hyperbole.

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.

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.

Well researched book on Genghis Khan Life and Times

Reviewed by Raja N. Krishnan, 2010-01-15


Who do you think is the most re-known barbarian in World History? 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. I have always been curious about the person Genghis Khan as a conqueror and an emperor that established trade networks within his empire. Some questions might be: why is Genghis Khan perceived as a barbarian or what made him do these barbaric acts. 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. Dr. 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. 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. The transition between these sections was fluid and logical. The book was an easy read and I also learned a lot of interesting historical nuggets, which I always enjoy. 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. 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. 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. Along the way he also cites primary source references to support his story. I gained a good appreciation of the life and times of Genghis Khan. 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. 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. 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. This increased the standard of living throughout the empire.

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.

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. Their actions cannot be explained according to a specific timetable like the coming and going of so many trains. 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. Their efforts linger long after the action faded from view."

Overall the book was an easy read and provided good information. I would recommend this book to any lover of history and particularly someone that is interested in the history of Genghis Khan.