Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford (EPUB)

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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.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Upon reading Jack Weatherford’s historical account of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, published in 2004, you begin to see the Chinese calendar in a whole new light. The author has given it literary and historical significance. You can finally relate the year of the horse to 1212, when Genghis Khan rode out on his trusty stallion and restored the Khitan monarchy to all its power and magnificence; the year of the pig to 1215, when Genghis Khan and his Mongol horde first brought fine meaty delicacies, such as ham and pork chops, back to his starving people from conquered civilizations to the east; the year of the rabbit to 1219, when he and the Mongols proceeded westward– dashing, zig-zagging and, hopping around like a programmable “Ever Ready” Easter bunny on steroids with a computer chip for a brain toward the citadel of Kwarizm, liberating untold wealth and achieving the pinnacle of success; the year of the dragon to 1220, when he and his behemoth Mongol army captured Bukhara to the south, known as the jewel of Islam; and so forth, until the fierce, fire-breathing Mongol army conquered every major city in Turkey, Arabia, and Persia in the greatest show of strength, prowess, agility, and military might ever experienced to date. Thus, the author continues to provide anxious readers with useful gems of information throughout the entire book, constantly mining for facts, refining the details, expounding and elaborating upon the major historical events as he narrates the story. Ultimately, he sets it all on the table and puts everything to the test. In a nutshell, he gives the incredible story of Genghis Khan the breath of life, cinematic-quality, and panoramic perspective. The Khan becomes a dominant, larger-than-life, archetype character, the main driving force, in his leading role as a great military leader and guru. Specifically, perhaps speaking facetiously, you can glean more common sense wisdom out of absorbing the facts, figures, details, and events, which the author cavalierly presents in this esoteric book, than you might otherwise digest in the course of a lifetime of oblivious, sedentary, gravitationally challenged occupations in an exercise in futility, like watching television soap operas all afternoon, before suddenly waking up, smelling the coffee, and attaining enlightenment at some point in time, as follows: It was once said, but rarely repeated, that in the not too distant past, perhaps hundreds or even thousands of miles away, a group of rough and tumble henchmen intercepted, humiliated, tortured, then cruelly and unceremoniously put to death a poor, humble emissary of peace, not knowing the Great Mongol Khan and his mighty army horde was right behind the envoy, just over the next hilltop, and would not be denied. Utilizing the military tactics learned over the years from the mighty Genghis Khan, after his death in battle in 1227, his sons and grandsons picked up where he left off, having grasped the tactical importance of a variety of attack modes, including the “dogfight,” “silent attack,” “lightning strike,” and “divine wind.” In the “dragnet,” for example, you never know what kind of hoofed animals and wild hogs might be scooped up for a Royal Mongolian Barbecue. Therefore, in long, protracted wars, and laboring under all conditions, the Mongols perpetuated their reputation as having a viable, unified, highly organized, and very effective fighting force. Reading between the lines, you learn what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object. In 1236, the year of the monkey, Batu’s leading general attacked the Volga River region of Bulgar. A few short years later, in 1240, the year of the rat, the Mongols attacked Kiev. Afterwards, Khan Batu came to be known as Tsar Batu. He has left an impressive legacy. After the death of Genghis Khan’s sons, Ogodei and Batu, their sons continued the aggressive actions of their fathers before them. Ogodei’s sons attacked China and Batu’s sons attacked Europe, automatically assuming command in their places. In 1241, the three Princes of Mongolia, Batu, Buri, and Guyuk began squabbling among themselves for a time, halting progress in their invasion of Europe. It is not clear whether or not their differences were satisfactorily resolved, but this did not prevent the Mongol army from attacking the German knights and defenders at Walhstatt. The Mongols had easily lured the knights into a trap and defeated them handily. Duke Henry II was killed in the battle. But, according to the author, the battle had been fought merely as a diversion for the Mongols. The real objective for the Mongol army was Budapest, Hungary. Within three days march away, the invaders killed an estimated 100,000 Hungarian and Polish soldiers who came out to greet them. King Bela IV was forced to flee, and miraculously escaped the carnage. Near the end of 1241, Khan Ogodei died, and the full-scale invasion of Europe suddenly ceased. The Mongols left without a word, without further ado, perplexing all concerned. In 1242, the year of the tiger, the Mongols simply withdrew from W. Europe altogether, back to their expanding Russian stronghold base. By 1255, all four of Genghis Khan’s sons had died. So, it came to pass that the men fought the wars, but their women ruled the empire, as suggested by the author. So it was the Mongols who must have coined or invented the term, “the power behind the throne.” In July, 1251, Mongke Grand Khan was proclaimed the supreme ruler of the Mongolian empire. He was the son of Genghis Khan’s youngest son, Tolui. His mother, Sorkhokhtani, ruled N. China and E. Mongolia. Definitely worthy of mention is the fact that all four of her sons would become Khans: Arik Bok, Hulegu, Kubilai, and Mongke. The family certainly had a complicated genealogy. In 1253, the year of the ox, Mongke Khan set forth a magnificent celebration, feast, and a religious debate among the prominent religions of Buddhism, Muslim, and Christianity. There were years of peace and prosperity and they must not have had anything better to do at the time. In August, 1259, as the author faithfully relates, Mongke Khan died. In 1260, Arik Bok became the Great Kahn. But he was ousted by his brother Kubilai Khan in a coup soon afterwards. He died in 1266, under mysterious circumstances. Definitely suspicious. You wonder what really happened. Kubilai Khan’s greatest achievement was in conquering and unifying all of China by mostly peaceful means. Essentially, he unified China through the use of a strong army, influential propaganda, a benevolent administration and instituting fair policies. The author makes several such perceptive inferences in that chapter of history. You may draw your own conclusions. Brilliant deduction, Sherlock. We know why they built the “Great Wall of China.” The stories themselves and the timeline presented by the author certainly provides a firm framework for analytical readers who want to dig, delve, and dive deeply into material of the book in order to discover juicy pearls of sensational facts and fascinating multi-faceted, ruby-red details about the numerous countries involved; the so-affected and impacted regions of the then-known world; and their powerful, enigmatic, illustrious leaders, hitherto largely unknown entities. History may ordinarily be considered a dry, tedious subject in general, but, I am positively certain, that reading about the great Mongol horde will quickly become a worthwhile endeavor for anyone with an inquiring mind, particularly those who want to know exactly what “the enemy” has been thinking all those years. Particularly, when they are skeptical that a large, motley, scattered band of poor, illiterate, back-woods marauders could possibly have traveled over such great distances for so many years to fight battle after battle together against trained soldiers protectively ensconced on solid foundations and secured behind the dense, thick rock walls of fortified castles. It boggles the mind to think that they could shoot up Main Street in town on Saturday night like drunken cowboy outlaw revelers; or attack the Fort, like a renegade tribe of wild North American Indian warriors, massacring everyone inside, then moving on to the next fortified city. Perhaps, it is speculative science fiction to think so, but I begin to wonder if there hasn’t been a massive cover-up about a thousand years ago, or even farther back in time; if there wasn’t an undisclosed “Area 51, Roswell, New Mexico” from some technologically advanced civilization hidden within the dense forests and inside rugged mountain caverns, somewhere in the more remote, desolate, and isolated regions of Mongolia. Where exactly did the space ship land? Where did all the flying saucers go? Far-fetched as it may seem, Europe, China, and the Middle East might actually have been invaded in the medieval ages by alien beings, originating from another planet in a far distant galaxy, who suddenly appeared on Earth in human form, and infiltrated the Mongol army horde, solely in order to have them turn the tide of history in their favor. On the other hand, maybe they were just looking for the “Lost Ark of the Covenant,” and the raiders had to fight everyone along the path to get there. Only the physical evidence and concrete proof is missing. R. Royce was snorkeling at an as of yet undisclosed location when he noticed a school of sharks pass beneath him in the oceanic depths. He thought, “I should have stuck to noodling for catfish in the tributaries of the Missouri River.” That made him think about something he told his sister some months ago, “Don’t let your mother and your sister drive you crazy and let them ruin your life.” All of them have such willful minds. They are stubbornly determined, persistent, and totally committed to their actions. “Can’t they just let it slide for a change?” Elders don’t want change. They can’t deal with it. Youth wants to try a fresh, novel approach. She’s stuck in the middle and can’t escape her destiny. Later on the beach, Royce called Cornelius Korn, his business associate and long-time friend on his cellular telephone. “The sharks have arrived to have the barnacles scraped from their bellies, ingest their vitamins, and get their shot records updated,” he said. “How are things going on base?” “Couldn’t be better,” replied Korn. “Three subs will arrive within the month for routine maintenance and resupply. Technicians will modify and upgrade their electronics equipment. The excavation and construction project is moving along like clockwork.” “The O-club has been bustling with activity, as have the USO office and Recreation Center. The troops couldn’t be happier,” said Royce. “Island Adventures is a trip out of this world.” “There’s no shortage of pirate booty in Bluebeard’s Duty Free Store, either,” said Alexis Sue Shell, Cornelius’s girlfriend, grinning. “Let’s go, Buck-O,” said Raquel Remington. “But, I don’t want to pressure you in any way.” They had been happily sipping Margaritas in the shade and cool tropical breeze of a nearby Tiki hut. “Talk about an ocean view!” “Hickory liquory daiquiri dock. See the surfers on the boardwalk.” sang Alexis, enthusiastically. She was poetry in motion. “Why they’re none other than the famous Hollywood movie moguls and Italian film directors, Royce and Korn,” said Raquel, as they walked toward them and bellied up to the bar. “We eat spaghetti westerns for breakfast,” said the jovial Korn. “Trinity is still my name,” said Royce, referring to an Italian movie of the same name. “My red, swollen feet hurt terribly,” exclaimed Korn, suddenly mildly irritated, pointing down to his bare appendages. The sandals he was wearing exposed his tender feet. “You probably thought you’d stepped on a jelly fish, and he turned out to be a Portuguese man of war,” said Royce, now smiling congenially. “Definitely not a Squid or a Navy Seal,” retorted Korn. “Yes, he might have kicked your derriere, otherwise,” said Royce. Along about that time another couple strolled up, Richard Ishtabuhla and Heather Meriwether. He was the former King Richard III in exile and she was his Lady. They were traveling incognito, and mum was the word. The last to arrive was Sailor Dan Sandhurst, another undercover operative, and business associate of the present party. He came to pass along a message. The Phluegers would be arriving in a few days to make final preparations for the sale and transfer of the newly constructed corporate headquarters building on the island. It was a big deal about to bear fruit. Official now, the navies from a dozen or more allied nations had signed a 99 year lease for the use of the land and facilities at the proposed top-secret subterranean submarine base. “We plan on catering to all of their military needs,” said Sandhurst. He was actually a highly competent contract, procurement, and logistical officer. Someone misquoted him as having said, “If the Navy wanted you to have a wife, they would have issued you one.” Before too long, he was happily engaged and living in paradise. “You come highly recommended by my young Aunt,” confessed Daisy Mae Jones, his sweetheart, when they first met at the Academy.

⭐When reading biographies it is always important to keep in mind, that what Peter says about Paul often tells you more about Peter than about Paul. It is certainly true in this case(perhaps more so than is usual), for i am sure i learned as much or more about J.Weatherford when reading this book then i did about G.Khan, although the problem is that most of it is projected onto Khan rather than honestly attributed to the author. But no matter, consider the book a whopping good historical novel, for it reads smoothly like a good addictive detective novel until almost the end. That is the book’s greatest strength, and the author’s, it is fine and engrossing reading, even if it presents a distorted and revisionist viewpoint of the great Mongolian world conqueror, it does so in such a way that people will actually read and enjoy the book. J.Weatherford has my welcome permission to rewrite any engineering and math text i’ve ever been subjected to, he can alter the formulas and make the equations as unbalanced as he wants, the sacrifice of truth and correctness to readability is worth the exchange. (not really but you get the idea)As has been remarked in several other amazon reviews, the book is uneven:Part I The Reign of Terror on the Steppe: 1162-12061: The Blood Clot2:Tale of Three Rivers3: War of the KhansPart II The Mongol World War: 1211-12614: Spitting on the Golden Khan5: Sultan Versus Khan6: Discovery and Conquest of Europe7: Warring QueensPart III The Global Awakening: 1262-19628:Khubilai Khan and the New Mongol Empire9: Their Golden Light10: The Empire of IllusionEpilogue: The Eternal Spirit of Genghis KhanParts I and II are excellent. Better history, sticking more to G.Khan than to J.Weatherford and his moralizing of the Mongols. Part III is worth reading but only if you like the big ideas that Weatherford is trying to sell: the Mongols as internationalizers. As the book puts it, G.Khan tears down the walls between the cities, allowing their merchants to exchange goods without political interference. The author may very well be right in his analysis, but i would prefer that it be introduced as analysis and not as biography. So, generally the author’s top down analysis condemns the book on the factual level to historical novel status. Akin to rewriting a math book and getting the formulas wrong because they read better in the revisionist form. As a result, because the book interests me, not just at the low level of biographical details, but because i am interested in these high order analysis principles i collected a few recommendations as i read the amazon reviews, find them attached. Furthermore, I thought at first, that the introduction was a joke, the secret history of the mongols, the forbidden zone around a sacred mountain set off internal alarms that this guy is wacko, so don’t start reading there, too many red flags. Read either of the first 3 chapters to get a flavor and frankly to get addicted to read the rest.My big question is if the death and destruction was worth the universal, widespread, free flow of goods, ideas and people that followed under a unified(kindof4in1) Mongol empire?It is a moral question, complicated by the fact that the Black Death may not have followed the Mongol lines of communication as they did, killing even more people, if the Mongols had never conquered the known world. I know it is playing the “what if” game, which may not be the greatest way of handling nor understanding history. But it is one of the big issues of the book, the making of our modern world begins with the Mongol conquests (at least the gospel according to J.Weatherford) First, is it true or even a useful idea? and Second was it a good thing? I don’t know, hence the list of further reading to do. But that is the legacy of this book, more questions, and that is why, despite it’s shortcomings i rated it a 5 star. Books that ask these sorts of questions (big questions, moral questions, big picture principles) and encourage people to read them because of their style and ability to suck the reader in, are worth reading.Does Genghis Khan need a good press agent(in addition to J.Weatherford)? Was his memory distorted and unjustly tied to Tamerlane? I don’t know, but i know i don’t trust this author to tell me it was. Did the Mongols act as a conduit for lots of good ideas from China to Europe? Of course, printing, gunpowder, compass for example. Was their’s a benevolent, all faith’s compete equally for the Khan’s attention, state over religion, pragmatic rule that brought enlightenment to those it conquered, while carrying away the skilled and intelligentsia and killing off the hated aristocracy? Perhaps. Was it the last great battle in the Cain versus Abel, horsemen versus planter, ger versus city, tabernacle versus temple, great metaphoric battle? It’s not a bad organizing principle even when it sacrifices historical detail to persuasiveness. After all, much of the value of reading lies in what you remember in a year, versus the lost details which escape our diminishing memories, those big images will remain in my mind long after the textbook details they substituted for vaporize as did the Mongol empire.but don’t let this review miss the first big point, Genghis Khan was a genius, of first order rank, a worth subject of biographies and of directed reading. What makes men like this, what they did to our world and what that means to us are important issues. nor the second big point, history is moralizing, by it’s very nature, but usually it isn’t so blatant or obvious. Which is a good-bad thing, at least with this book it is so obvious that you recognize it, others sneek it in below the level of consciousness and you imagine that they’re objective and unmoralizing when they just hide their message better. History is written, not for the past but to influence the future by changing the people’s minds about how their present really, truely got here. In that way, because the book is so heavy handed in it’s analysis, his revisionist message will be rejected more often than it is taken seriously and examined. Maybe that is sad, perhaps the Mongols are the first empire builders that ushered in the modern age.so, i do recommend the book, but not for the details but for the big picture, and understanding that it is rather distorted by the author’s strong revisionist ideas. If you understand that you are learning about two men in reading the book, G.Khan and J.Weatherford, then you’ll get the priorities close enough to get the book into the right slots in your mind, for what JW says about GK really does say as much about JW as it does about GK. If you want to learn more about GK and not about JW, see the books listed, and please email me with your recommendations at rwilliam2 at yahoo dot com. thanks.reviewer recommendation:Rene Grousset’s “The Empire of the Steppes” or Harold Lamb’s “The March of the Barbarians”Genghis Khan or the Emperor of All Men by Harold LambGenghis Khan and the Mongol Conquests 1190-1400 by Stephen R. TurnbullSubotai the Valiant : Genghis Khan’s Greatest General by Richard A. GabrielThe Perilous Frontier by Barfield

⭐This is a somewhat apologist account of the Mongol empire that is nonetheless very good. It’s most compelling when describing Genghis Khan’s rise to power, which is one powerful rags-to-riches story. Khublai Khan’s Chinese-ification to cement his power is also extremely interesting. The middle part where all the conquering takes place is a bit more gruesome.Weatherford makes apologies, such as comparing the Mongols’ actions to other “barbaric” practices at the time and using euphemisms (e.g., women are “given in marriage,” girls at camp do “anything else asked of them”), but the brutality of the record shines through. The Mongols appear to have viewed peasants as no better than herding animals, and willing used them to fill moats, when nothing else would do. Ghenghis Khan’s own mother compared him to a wild animal… on two separate occasions. That’s tough! So even though the author whitewashes a bit, the history still comes through and seems accurate.

⭐I never knew all that much about Genghis Khan which is why I bought this book.As regards history, it’s difficult to know what is true and what is not. In fact, one could go to a public event, as I did recently, and find that all recorded information on it is wildly inaccurate, incomplete, and heavily biased. Go back 800 years and it becomes a virtual impossibility to produce a piece of historical writing that holds any degree of accuracy and often any recorded history, such as it may be, is biased by being recorded by those who wished things to be recorded a certain way. The victors write history after all. And then we have writers who subsequently filter available data through their own subjective prisms so as to try to present it to a modern reader hundreds of years after supposed events occurred. And they may easily put a false flavour on things because of their desired aims rather than giving the reader anything of real substance.Having said the above, there were times I found this book entertaining. The epic story of a man who went from being a slave to a great conqueror is fascinating.There were places where I felt the story was perhaps trying to force modern ideological ideas on to the past rather than presenting things as they were at the time.At times I felt like it just jumped from one fact to another which hindered my flow of reading and made it difficult for me to concentrate on it for as long as I usually would on books in general.I expect this book took a lot of effort to write but that the central ideas of how Khan impacted the modern world could have been laid out more lucidly. In parts I found the book somewhat incoherent and dry, though it goes to certain lengths not to be which reminded me slightly of Hollywood blockbusters like Aladdin or Gladiator.Is it worth a look? Maybe. I guess these things are subjective. I tend to consistently find “New York Times Bestseller” books a bit dull though.

⭐I never knew there was so much about Genghis Khan. How do we not come across him at school when he has influenced our society so much. I haven’t read any other books on him so I can’t compare but I thoroughly enjoyed this one – and I’m not interested in history or biographies normally but this was easy to read.

⭐It only took me three days to read this relatively thin paperback. Genghis Khan had a huge role in history and there is rather a dearth of information on him, considering the massive scale of the Mongol Empire he created. At its peak, it ran from the Pacific in the East to the Mediterranean in the West, bigger than the Roman Empire and that carved by Alexander the Great. The author based his account primarily on new revelations prompted by his research team re-examining the Secret History of The Mongols, an ancient document which was very difficult to translate and had laid hidden for many years due to the political upheavals in the region. Genghis has a mixed reputation throughout history, with the likes of Chaucer elevating him and Voltaire and Montesquieu later deriding him. The Mongols uniquely placed world culture in a position to develop into what we now know, with international trade, religious tolerance and mass migration of peoples. The Mongols are perhaps looked down upon for not bequeathing us anything unique from their own culture, but rather amalgamating and developing existing ideas from the races and civilisations of other people’s they conquered. They practised some novel ideas for the time such as diplomatic immunity, not torturing prisoners, allowing all religions to flourish under the empire with an emphasis on secular law. The book covers the rise of Temujin from his downtrodden youth, to the height of his power and then looks at the maintenance of his legacy after his death, with the separation of the great Khanate into four primary regions. It is a great look at medieval history from an Asian perspective and has enlightened me about various subjects from that time and added to knowledge I already had on the Crusades, Marco Polo, the Black Death and The European Renaissance. The decline of the Empire was sudden and could only arise through a natural disaster which engulfed the whole world, in the Great Plague. What would have occurred had this devastating illness never erupted? The book was brief and precise and covered a vast array of topics though in my opinion for such a good subject matter, it could have been more expansive in volume. It has given me a taste for Genghis Khan and I shall try to dig out some more similar biographies on the great Steppes people. https://wezgbooks.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/review-genghis-khan-and-the-making-of-the-modern-world/

⭐this book is one of the best that I have ever read, I learnt so much about Gengis Khan and the Mongols he conquered an area as large as the whole of North America and never lost a single battle, the modern Asian Countries boundaries owe a lot to his battles i.e. China, India and Russia although he never lost a battle he was outnumbered on every occasion, I purchased this book for my daughters partners birthday in a couple of weeks time, hopefully he will enjoy reading it as much as I did.

⭐Genghis Khan and his successors are important figures in world history that Westerners should know more about. (The Mongol Empire a it’s maximum stretched from China to Syria and some people claim that 1 in 200 men are his descendants, for example) However, whilst this book tells the reader a lot about Mongolia and Genghis folklore, it is fairly weak on the reasons collapse of the Mongol Empire for there is not really much about how Genghis and his successors shaped the modern world that could stand rigorous questioning.

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