Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
by Jack Weatherford
List Price:
Our Price: $5.95
You Save: $20.00 (77%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Jack WeatherfordEdition: Hardcover
Published: 2004-03-16
ISBN: 0609610627
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Crown
Book Reviews of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Book Review: Genghis Kahn as you never knew him
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a superb history of Genghis Kahn and the Mongol Hords, without the European and Islamic biases that go with it. The Mongol conquerers and rulers come across as more competent and, dare I say it, more tolerant than the people they conquered, albeit part of the same milieu of conquering, taking spoils of war, and enslaving as most people of their day. As rulers they actually understood economics and commerce better than most and brought prosperity and stability the the worlds they ruled.
Summary of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
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.
“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.
General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Still More Exquisite Reading
Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883by Simon Winchester
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.00
Price in other shops:
Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws That Changed America (.)by Nick Kotz
Houghton Mifflin; Published: 2005-01-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern Worldby Jack Weatherford
Crown; Published: 2004-03-16; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.21
Price in other shops:
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essexby Nathaniel Philbrick
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2001-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
Sailors to the End: The Deadly Fire on the USS Forrestal and the Heroes Who Fought Itby Gregory A. Freeman
HarperAudio; Published: 2002-07-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $3.95
Price in other shops:
The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary Warby Thomas Dilorenzo
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2003-12-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.10
Price in other shops:
Players: The Mysterious Identity of William Shakespeareby Bertram Fields
Harper; Published: 2005-03-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $1.37
Price in other shops:
Alabama in the Twentieth Century (Modern South)by Wayne Flynt
University Alabama Press; Published: 2004-10-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $22.00
Price in other shops:
Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916by Michael Capuzzo
Broadway; Published: 2002-05-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.99
Price in other shops:
Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941-1945by Christopher Bayly, Tim Harper
Belknap Press; Published: 2005-03-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.25
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Mongolian: Lonely Planet Phrasebookby Alan J. K. Sanders, J. Bat-Ireedui, Lonely Planet Phrasebooks
Lonely Planet; Published: 2008-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.61
Price in other shops:
1421: The Year China Discovered America (P.S.)by Gavin Menzies
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.33
Price in other shops:
Genghis: Lords of the Bowby Conn Iggulden
Delacorte Press; Published: 2008-03-25; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.07
Price in other shops:
A History of the World in 6 Glassesby Tom Standage
Walker & Company; Published: 2005-06-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $20.17
Price in other shops:
The World That Trade Created: Society, Culture, And the World Economy, 1400 to the Present (Sources and Studies in World History)by Kenneth Pomeranz, Steven Topik
M.E. Sharpe; Published: 2005-10-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $20.00
Price in other shops:
Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republicby Tom Holland
Anchor; Published: 2005-03-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.47
Price in other shops:
Secret History of the Mongols: The Origin of Chingis Khan (C & T Asian Culture Series) (C & T Asian Culture Series)by Paul Kahn, Francis Woodman Cleaves
Cheng & Tsui; Published: 1998-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $430.86
Mongolia (Country Guide)by Michael Kohn
Lonely Planet; Published: 2008-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.93
Price in other shops:
Genghis: Birth of an Empireby Conn Iggulden
Dell; Published: 2008-02-26; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.65
Price in other shops:
The History of Moneyby Jack Weatherford
Three Rivers Press; Published: 1998-03-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.71
Price in other shops: