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    Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
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    Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
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    Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
    Ebook491 pages7 hours

    Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

    By Jack Weatherford

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The startling true history of how one extraordinary man from a remote corner of the world created an empire that led the world into the modern age—by the author featured in Echoes of the Empire: Beyond Genghis Khan.

    The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in twenty-five 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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateMar 22, 2005
    ISBN9780307237811
    Unavailable
    Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

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    Reviews for Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      A retelling of the Mongol Empire from its founding until the present day. Relies mainly on the primary source The Secret History of the Mongols using recent reinterpretations and new translations. More sympathetic to the Mongols as a positive force, rather than the negative barbarian destroyers of yore. Much more detailed and interesting than I thought it would be for a history of 13th century tribes. Probably the best general popular history of the Mongols available. It may deserve 4.5 or 5 stars as the first major reinterpretation of the Mongols, but I am not familiar enough with the historiography to judge.
    • 4/5
      Weatherford proves adept at detailing the history and peoples of a foreign and long-removed culture. His investigations of the Secret History of the Mongol People as well as the chronicle of many men since shed light on a once-dark time in history. The author shows how the Mongol Empire proved to be the catalyst of so many modern phenomena, such as ardent Anti-Semitism, Chinese dynasties and coalition-building. While there are times when the texts from which he pulls are silent on matters, Weatherford pushes through these difficulties with grace. His revisionist history is a delight to read.
    • 4/5
      An interesting, very "pro" history of the Mongols and their relationship to history. There is very little to no criticism of their place in history. Not an overly technical book. Certainly worthwhile for my education of world history. I would like to hear some more historical evaluation of the possible negative aspects of the Mongols for some balance.
    • 3/5
      A well-written look at the history of Genghis Khan, his ancestors and his descendants. Gives a good overview of the Mongol Dynasty in Chinese History (known as the Yuan Dynasty, 1279-1368). An entertaining yet educational read, but I am aware of the many reviews on Amazon pointing out various factual errors. Weatherford's descriptions are so earthy and of the 'I've tried it, been there, ridden it, eaten it, seen it' variety that make for entertaining and colorful reading that I can forgive anything my more intellectual side tells me may be more myth than fact. And when, in Chinese history, is this more likely to occur than the era of Genghis Khan and the Mongols?
    • 5/5
      An immensely fascinating chapter in world history, well told by the distinguished historian Jack Weatherford.
    • 3/5
      The author gives a new perspective on the era of the Khans and how they changed the world. From his perspective the Khans were responsible for every innovation since 1200! Maybe a little overboard, but the section that discusses how the Europeans transformed the Mongols into humanoids just a step away from Orangoutangs. Strange beasts we are.
    • 4/5
      I was newly arrived in Seoul, South Korea and desperate for English language reading materials, and decided that "Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world" was as good a choice as choice as any to pass the time during my countless subway trips around Seoul.Prior to reading this I knew that Genghis Khan was head of one of the greatest empires in history but I hadn't realised that he had risen from so low (he was a slave) and achieved so much relatively late in life (at an age that most of us want to put our feet up, ol' Genghis was launching invasions in all directions).Genghis Khan's influence on world events can also not be overstated, what with 1/3 of all Mongolians alive today being directly descended from him, the multitudes killed by his troops, the vast swathes of territory he and his descendants claimed, and so on. They are all covered here by Waterford, as well as his search for Genghis's final resting place (not surprisingly the men who buried him were then killed so his grave remained secret.A ripping read about a larger than life man.
    • 3/5
      "Genghis" is an enjoyable account of both Genghis Khan the man, and the reverberations of his existence throughout history.
      I borrowed it after attending a Bay Area Nadaam festival piqued my interest in Mongolian history. Despite sometimes taking an overly sympathetic view of his subject (oh Jack Weatherford, you really wanted that Honorary Doctorate from Chinggis Khaan College in Mongolia), I appreciated having my assumptions about Khan, and Mongolia's role in history, overturned. If Weatherford is to be believed, the Mongol Empire was characterized by meritocracy, unprecedented religious pluralism and a genius for technological adaptation. Go figure!

      This is a quick and easy read that will perhaps spur me on to pick of some of the texts recording the inter-cultural contacts of the era (Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo, etc.).

      Did I forget the forming of a Chinese state? Yeah, they did that, too.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating history of my favorite era - the Mongol invasions of Asia and Europe. I docked one star because Weatherford was a little too effusive toward the Mongols and their place in history.
    • 4/5
      Covering hundreds of years of history, this book reviews the successes of Genghis Khan and the successes then failures of his descendants, who began the process of connecting Eurasia and brought major innovations to warfare and to governance. I would’ve liked more about the military tactics, in fact; they sound perfectly terrifying.
    • 5/5
      Such an excellent book on the Mongols and their history. One of the most enjoyable history books I've read in a long time!
    • 3/5
      The mongols have gotten a bad rap. Weatherford Uncovers the positive influence of the Mongols on world history. Relies heavily on the Secret History of the Mongols Very little about encounter with Europe; would like to have had much more on this.

      Audio book retraces much of the same ground in an epilogue read by the author.
    • 5/5
      Who knew? The more history I read, the more astounded I get by the amount of disinformation is propagated by those who should know better. Well, that’s a bit harsh considering this book has only been publidhed, but still!! A fascinating read!!
    • 5/5
      I grew up in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. For me, World History was Euro-centric. I picked up this book to fill a few enormous holes in my understanding of global history. The book delivered much more than I ever expected to learn.Genghis Khan was much more than a Mongol conqueror from centuries gone by. In the hands of scholar and traveler Jack Weatherford, he was a flesh and blood human being from incredibly humble origins who, through determination, grit, and intelligence, united the separate tribes of the northern Asian Steppes to create an Empire the likes of which the world had never seen.Every part of this book was a surprise to me. The intelligence of Genghis was astounding. His ideas for an ideal were some of the most impressive I’ve ever come across. He wanted the ordinary people to have a chance to succeed. Unlike many leaders today who give lip service to that idea, Genghis Khan instituted policies to ensure it.Weatherford goes on to talk about how his Empire continued to grow but then disintegrated under the leadership of his descendants. For a little over a hundred years after his death, they ruled most of modern China, Russia, the Middle East, Mongolia, and Siberia. But, unfortunately, their impressive accomplishments were checkered with dismal failures and poor decisions.But I was astounded by the changes the Mongols brought about. They introduced innovations that really did change the world forever, and mostly for the better. Some of their ideas, still largely untried, would make for a fair and more equitable world. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World is one of the best history books I have ever read. I recommend it to everyone interested in the history of politics and military exploits.
    • 5/5
      Captivating history book. Jack Weatherford writes Mongol history and relates to events up to present day. Immense influence of Mongol Empire globalized majority of world. Tactics of war and peace, warrior mentality, collision of cultures, religions, drastically different ways of living.“Temujin followed the sporadic attacks of the Moving Bush with the Lake Formation, in which a long line of troops advanced, fired its arrows, and then was replaced by the next line… Once the Naiman spread out, Temujin switched to his third tactic. He regrouped his squads one behind the other in the Chisel Formation.” (Pages 61–62)Genghis Khan conquered and united. He was diplomatic, giving others a chance to pay tribute before taking over. He was brutal when conquered people fled or disobeyed new authority.“In addition to sex, property, and food, Genghis Khan recognized the disruptive potential of competing religions. In one form or another, virtually every religion from Buddhism to Christianity and Manichaeanism to Islam had found converts among the steppe people, and almost all of them claimed not only to be the true religion but the only one… Genghis Khan decreed complete and total religious freedom for everyone.” (Page 69)Christians of Europe first thought Mongols were invading Europe to reclaim bones of the Three Kings. When Mongols traveled away from location of bones, Christians believed they were exiled Jews, descendants of those who followed strange Gods when Moses was around. The scared, fearful Christians could not defeat the Mongols, but they killed Jews across Europe. “Church ordered that Jews had to wear less distinctive clothes and emblems to mark them for all to see.” (Page 157) (Pages 157-158)“Unlike many civilizations – and most particularly western Europe, where monarchs ruled by the will of God and reigned above the law – Genghis Khan made it clear that his Great Law applied as strictly to the rulers as to everyone else.” (Page 70)Description of religious debate:“No side seemed to convince the other of anything. Finally, as the effects of the alcohol became stronger, the Christians gave up trying to persuade anyone with logical arguments, and resorted to singing. The Muslims, who did not sing, responded by loudly reciting the Koran in an effort to drown out the Christians, and the Buddhists retreated into silent meditation. At the end of the debate, unable to convert or kill one another, they concluded the way most Mongol celebrations concluded, with everyone simply too drunk to continue.” (Page 173)Mongol caravans included people from diverse cultures and all walks of life. They applied controlling herds of animals, to controlling millions of people.
    • 4/5
      An interesting, thought provoking history which does err slightly into over-sympathy at times. Still, very much worth reading and it should make you reconsider history from a less euro-centric viewpoint
    • 4/5
      This book wasn't quite what I expected - I figured it would be about Genghis Khan's life, but it was actually just as much about how his legacy formed the modern world. Which, I must say, was a delightful surprise. The first half of the book chronicled Genghis Khan's life, starting with a very interesting childhood. I loved how much detail was included about Genghis Khan's strong-willed mother. She was kidnapped from her first husband soon after their marriage, and was awarded to her captor, Genghis Khan's father. But she didn't just submit. She helped her first husband escape by letting herself be captured. Then, when Genghis Kahn's father suddenly died, the whole family was left to die by the rest of their group. But Genghis Kahn's mother had different plans. She kept the family alive against all odds. She was even willing to marry her step-son (only one year older than her own son) to make the family cohesive. But this is when Genghis Kahn's conquering spirit fired up - he didn't want his mother marrying his brother, because then his brother's place as head-of-household would be solidified. Instead, he encouraged his younger brother to shoot the elder. Interestingly, when he formed universal laws for his empire later in his life, such intra-family killings were outlawed. After the incident with his brother, the narrative began to follow Genghis Khan rather than his parents. What I found interesting about this part of the book was that he was not portrayed as a conquering tyrant as he generally is in modern media. He was portrayed as cunning and wise. His laws were fair, reasonable, and well-thought-out. There was only very a little talk of battle strategy and history in this book. I had wished to have more of such information, but I can always read a different biography of Genghis Kahn. The purpose of Weatherford's book was not to chronicle a history of Genghis Khan's wars but to give a previously unseen glimpse into Genghis' private life, personality, and how his legacy changed the world.One thing that I found particularly wise about Genghis Kahn was his realization that nepotism does not necessarily lead to the most devoted followers. Promoting one's family first was common among his people, so Genghis Kahn was breaking cultural norms when he promoted by loyalty first. And it was amazing what kind of loyalty he inspired. He must have been a very charismatic man. The final part of the book was about Genghis Kahn's legacy. How his universal laws shaped the area even after they were neglected by his descendants. How his descendants spread around the world and made their own little kingdoms. How the trade routes he created became the major East-to-West connection for centuries - a connection that Columbus was trying to rebuild when he attempted to sail around the world to India. Truly a fascinating read.
    • 5/5
      To be clear and fair, I love history books, so I'm likely to rate a history book high when it's well written, and this one is.

      I read the Iggulden novels about Genghis, and they were fun as novels, but this book gives the reader a really nice look into the world and culture of Genghis and his people. In particular, I was shocked to learn just how much of modern civilization was pioneered by the Mongols.

      Really excellent view into a piece of history that's clearly been misrepresented to most of us in the modern world.
    • 3/5
      For centuries, people saw Genghis Khan as merely a blood-thirsty conquerer. Perhaps the most important reason we have seen Genghis in this light is due to his own propaganda. “Terror, he realized, was best spread not by the acts of warriors, but by the pens of scribes and scholars.”

      This book attempts to counter that image of the Khans and the Mongol Empire, and shows all the great things they did that lay the foundation for the modern world: religious tolerance, paper currency, a postal system, etc.

      The book was a little too “this happened then this happened then that happened” for me to really enjoy it, but the information it contained was fascinating.
    • 5/5
      I had thought that Genghis Khan was another one of those mad conquerors that we had read about in history, like Tamerlane, Attila the Hun or Hitler.

      However, his story is more interesting than that. He definitely was a brute. For instance, to help win a battle he would round up villagers who were "trapped" outside the central city walls and force them into the surrounding moat and then trample them with heavy war machines and his own troops on horseback.

      He created an empire four times the size of the Roman Empire. He obliterated the great empire of the Muslims headquartered in Iraq and looted the city and sent all the best materials and scholars and workmen back to Mongolia and China.

      The *only* reason he did not conquer all of Europe was that the forests prevented him from using his cavalry the way he wanted to.

      The *big bonus* in this book and the main reason I give it five stars is the story of the grandson, Kublai Khan. This amazing man was one of the greatest leaders ever in history, in fact.

      The bonus knowledge here were his ideas of improving his country's fortunes by developing trade and to create inventions to trade to others, or to produce something more to trade with those inventions, anything that would work. The author summarized these points better than I have and are the example to any President or leader of a country who wants to grow his country. These few pages should be required reading for every leader because they are incontrovertible.
    • 5/5
      Weatherford has written a scintillating history, here. The book blew away my preconceptions of the Mongol Empire and replaced them with a much more nuanced understanding of how these people warred and ruled Fascinating, well-researched, and with a passion for the topic that shines through, this is one of the best popular histories that I've read. Genghis Khan and the Golden Horde have a popular series of associations: mericiless barbarians, sweeping down from the steppe and leaving ruin and desolation in their wake. The reality, though, was quite quite different, and Weatherford does a stirling job of bringing it to light. Starting with the genesis of the Mongols most famous ruler, Temujin - the Great Khan himself - Weatherford traces his development giving a background to both the man, and the cultures that propelled the Mongols halfway round the world. This structure - interspersing the personal, political histories with the broader military and cultural development - is maintained throughout the entire book, and it really worked for me. Weatherford brings a surprisingly deft narrative hand to his story, and it's difficult not to root for the various Mongols. But he doesn't shy away from scholarship, either, and more in-depth explanations of how war was waged, life was lived, and death was dealt. The result is that both aspects of the book are equally engaging, and I never tired of either. The use of primary or secondary sources (where they are available) also helped lend a voice to both the Mongols and their opponents and vassals. Weatherford really is a good writer, and the audiobook version is narrated extremely well. I learnt a lot from this book, and much of it was surprising and fascinating. Weatherford's passion is obvious and enthralling. A great read.
    • 4/5
      Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World describes Khan humble beginnings back when he was known as Temujin, a member of the steppe tribe to the leader of the most powerful and influential empires of all time. It was amazing to read that many of the aspects that are in daily life today were created be Khan.

      He was an incredibly intelligent leader. For every conquered land, he gave its people a chance to join him as equals into his "family." Only the ones that fought back were killed and never in a brutal way. Khan did not believe in unnecessary torture of any kind. He also spread a terror campaign because fear and paranoia were powerful tools in his arsenal. These stories were how Khan got his brutal reputation.

      He also created bridges to facilltate trade and the connect to the various people to promote solidarity and cohesion. It is also something that those bridges also helped the bubonic plague spread and decimate the Mongol Empire. Khan also created PAPER MONEY because the bouillons they carried were too cumbersome. Women also had a semi-equal part in the empire handling the administrative duties.

      Jack Weatherford knows how to write. With history tomes, I often worry it'll be boring, dry, and drab but this book was really interesting! I have read Amy Chua's book in which she dscusses the Mongol Empire and Democracy so I already knew Genghis Khan was not the senseless and violent savage he has always been portrayed as. I just didn't know how much he shaped our world. My only worry is that Weatherford may have been too Pro Mongol and that may have blinded him to the fact Khan still committed acts of violence and spread terror everywhere he went.
    • 3/5
      Good overview of importance of Genghis Khan and the Mongols. Very interesting, since I knew so little about them.
    • 5/5
      of numerous sources i've been studying on the subject, this is hands-down the single best introduction: an amazing story, with a variety of insights relevant to today, and very well organized and told. I look forward to reading his others books, which span a range of topics : money, Native Americans, etc.

    • 5/5
      This is a book that can and should be read by everyone, at least all with the slightest interest in world history. I feel this so adamantly since what it tells us does away with serious misconceptions about the Mongol Empire. It explains in a clear and comprehensible manner how the world we live in today has been improved by Mongol practices. It is stated that the book is revisionary, but I believe wholeheartedly in what we are told. It is clear and thoroughly documented. What we are told just plain makes sense! The author is a cultural anthropologist and historian.The book begins with a discussion about the life of Genghis Khan (1162-1227), follows his successors, offering detailed information both about Kublai Khan and powerful women of the clan, discussing the formation of the Mongol nation in 1206, the squabbling that arose between the successive leaders and concludes with a convincing analysis of how the Mongol Empire has influenced today’s world. We all think of the Mongols as barbarians that wrought havoc on the world. Few of us are aware of how they opened the world to commerce. They opened new trade routes, not only of physical goods but for the transmission of ideas and cultures. I am daunted because I cannot adequately express how this book has so changed how I view world history. I used to praise the new ideas espoused during the Enlightenment, but did you know that Voltaire drew a picture of the savage, blood-thirsty Mongols that served their own purposes and created a one-sided view that hid the truth. Chaucer praised Genghis Kahn and Marco Polo did the same for Kublai Kahn; When Christopher Columbus sailed west it was to look for Cathay, to reconnect with the fantastic trade routes established by the Mongols. I could go on and on showing how what we have been told about these so-called barbarians just doesn’t quite add up! What is explained here in this book makes sense and it changes how we understand today’s modern world. Did you know that Genghis Kahn made the capital of his Chinese Empire present day Beijing in 1266 and that that the Forbidden City was a huge park filled with wild animals where the Mongol leaders lived in ghers/yurts? Here in this enclosed area the Mongol leaders lived according to their own Mongol traditions. They ate their traditional foods, ate with knives, which the Chinese found abhorrent, drank fermented mare’s milk and practiced their own sports and games, so foreign to the Chinese culture around them. Did you know that “hooray” is based on a Mongol expression of exuberance? Did you know that Columbus called the red-skinned natives he encountered when he landed on the islands off the American mainland Indians because he thought he had met up with the Mongols living south of the Chinese Mongols, the Mongols of India? That is why Native Americans originally were called Indians. There is so much in this book that makes sense, it is like putting together all the pieces of a puzzle and everything fits!Kublai Kahn supported universal education with classes held in the colloquial language. Paper money was invented by the Chinese, but he saw its practicality and radically expanded its usage. Under his rule China attained its Golden Age of Drama. Medical knowledge, textile production, printing techniques, basically all areas of knowledge that were practical and useful were supported and transported to new areas around the world. Under the Mongol rule there was religious freedom. In the 1200s, think of that! I listened to the audiobook narrated by Jonathan Davis. His pronunciation of Mongol terms is clear. The pacing is perfect. This is essential in a book of non-fiction. Along with the download one is given pdf files of maps and diagrams. One difficulty that I had, when I searched on the net for further information, was that often more than one name was used for the same person. It is also difficult to recognize Mongol names. This is easier if you can both see and hear them. It is time that we begin to acknowledge the good things Genghis Kahn and Kublai Kahn have given us. Read this book and you will stop using the word “Mongolian” as a word of slander.Completed May 8, 2013
    • 4/5
      Apart from the fact that I really knew nothing about Genghis Khan, it was the tag "and the Making of the Modern World" that made me want to read this book. It did not disappoint - although I was left with a little suspicion about its objectivity. The author is an anthropologist, who has clearly a lot invested - not just his intellectual energy and research, but also passion and emotion - in his subject. He explains how the "Hidden History" of Genghis Khan was lost for many centuries, and then reappeared in a number of forms. He also describes his own explorations of Genghis Khan's Mongolian homeland. The first chapters relating to the childhood and early adulthood of Genghis Khan inevitably read like folk tales, rather than history; because that is what they are - although I don't doubt that they are based on some historical grains. But for me the mixing of legends with "real" history made for uncomfortable reading. However, from the time that Genghis become the "Great Khan", the rest is as they say history.What was really new to me – and this was where the book really lived up to its promise - was to read how modern Genghis Khan was in his attitude towards statecraft and domestic politics. That he was ruthless and relentless in his conquests is quite clear. But, by the standards of his time, he refrained from excessive cruelty, and was certainly not the brutal monster that he is often popularly depicted as. He brought the rule of law, trade and communications to the countries in his empire; he abolished torture and , although remaining a pagan himself, tolerated all religions. During his life time Genghis Khan and his Mongols were recognized for the good they brought - after ,that is, the shock of conquest had subsided. However in later centuries they became tarred with the reputation of a barbarian horde terrorizing more civilized lands. These changing perceptions leave their trace in European literature; for example, the Mongols feature almost heroically in one of Chaucer's Tales, while three centuries later Voltaire portrays the stereotypic image of barbarian brutality which I was familiar with and which – I am happy to say – this book has dispelled.
    • 5/5
      Most of us have some ideas about Genghis Khan, and those ideas are expressed and propagated in sayings like "He rampaged through like Genghis Khan!" But how accurate is the impression of Genghis Khan as the leader of a marauding horde of violent, merciless, pillaging, uncivilized outlaws? Maybe he was just misunderstood.It turns out, he probably was mostly misunderstood. Okay, young Genghis killed his half-brother when he was 10 so that the brother wouldn't become the head of the household and therefore in a position of power over him. But he also took back his wife after she was kidnapped by a rival tribe - and let no one say anything against his son, who was born suspiciously soon after the wife's return. So he was a complex fellow. But as interesting as his early years are, once he starts rising to power things really get engrossing. Genghis successfully created a Mongol nation out of the wandering tribes that had previously fought relentlessly with each other. He abolished favoritism based on family ties alone and promoted based on merit. He intermarried someone from his family with someone from every group he conquered, or adopted in a child from their culture to show that he was completely integrating the group. If you submitted to his rule, you were spared. If you resisted, you were killed. Pretty simple rules, actually.There's so much more to talk about, but I'll try to keep this short. Essentially, he had the element of surprise on his side in battle tactics because no one else had the horsepower and therefore speed of attack that the Mongols did. He also had that element of surprise in his treatment of conquered peoples, because he drew out those who had skills and made sure those skills were used well, while still not requiring any change of language, customs, or religion. About halfway through the book, Genghis Khan dies and we follow his heirs as Khan, some of whom were successful in the role and some of whom weren't. The most successful (although he didn't rule over the Mongol empire in its entirety) was Kublai Khan in China. Eventually, the Mongol empire disintegrated (due mostly to trade being cut off with the arrival of the bubonic plague) and the reputation of Genghis Khan and his people was reinvented as what we most often hear today.The book is full of fascinating information and written so that it's easily digestible. Great if you already have an interest in the history of this part of the world, but equally great if you're just curious about what Genghis Khan really was.
    • 4/5
      This is a very entertaining, thought-provoking and well-written book. The relatively low rating reflects my lingering skepticism. The back of the book itself calls it "revisionist history" and Weatherford is not a historian, but an anthropologist. Although to give him his due, he was part of a team that helped translate The Secret History of the Mongols and explored the Mongolian homeland once it was no longer restricted in the wake of the breakup of the Soviet Empire. No doubt the image of the Mongolians merit another look and some corrections from the simplistic view of them as the "quintessential, bloodthirsty barbarians." Yet even within his sympathetic, nearly hero-worshiping account, one can find glimmers of the reasons for the view of Genghis Khan as a great destroyer. Though Weatherford disputes the numbers, contending the Mongols didn't have the numbers and resources to make it possible, he noted that the more conservative estimates of historians count 15 million dead in five years caused by Genghis' invasion of Central Asia--and Weatherford does admit Genghis was a destroyer of city after city in search of loot. The very word "slave" comes from the mass enslavement of slavic peoples by the Mongols who then sold them to the Turks. Weatherford even admits Genghis' Mongols made little contribution to civilization per se--what he claims for them is that they made the modern world because they were "unrivaled cultural carriers." As he put it:The Mongols made no technological breakthroughs, founded no new religions, wrote few books or dramas, and gave the world no new crops or methods of agriculture. Their own craftsmen didn't weave cloth, cast metal, make pottery, or even bake bread: They manufactured neither porcelain nor pottery, painted no pictures, and built no buildings. Yet, as their army conquered culture after culture, they collected and passed on those skills from one civilization to the next.Weatherford claims that this transfusion of culture and trade led to the "Mongol Global Awakening" and to the European Renaissance. I'm skeptical frankly of anyone that claims any one reason for the reawakening of the West, or any one source whether a rediscovery of Greek and Roman antiquity, infusion of Islamic learning through the Crusades or Mongolians transmitting Chinese civilization Westward. Nevertheless, I have to thank Weatherford for giving me a fresh perspective into this medieval empire and its possible contributions.
    • 3/5
      I found the book somewhat light, just skirting around a lot of interesting subjects. This is not necessarily bad if it was intended for the wide audience, but it's too boring and dry to be successful as a 'popular history' kind of book. Still, quite a few interesting facts are contained there - I just wish it was better written for such interesting subject.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful book about rise of the nation and its slow but unavoidable demise. We follow Genghis Khan from his youth, involved in tribal squabbles with his relatives to the moment he establishes great Mongol empire spreading from todays China to eastern-most borders of Europe.But as much as night follows the day so Genghis Kahn's successors proved unable to control the empire left to them - soon inter-clan fighting will almost eradicate entire Genghis Khan's blood line while the final strike would come from the most unsuspected place. Genghis Khan's empire suffered the same fate as the empire of Alexander the Great.Great book showing how can a man coming from a steppe, descendant of the nomad nation, have a clear vision and be able to build a powerful state that will play the major role in the world and influence many.Great book. Highly recommended