Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (original 2004; edição 2005)

In most respects, this is a wonderfully surprising assessment of the founding, history, and impact of the Mongolian Empire! It's already one of my favorite popular history books!

The history presented in this book is 5-star interesting but the writing itself was a bit disappointing. Strangely repetitive and somewhat more simplistic than I expected. But this is a stylistic quibble, and it's the content that matters.

As for content, the author succumbs to the historical fallacy of ascribing modern sensibilities to historical figures (a phenomenon that's been unfortunately common in much historical literature for the past couple of decades). Yes, many of the principles on which Genghis Khan founded his empire were radical for his time and weren't seen again until the 20th century - but to call him a "modern man" (which the author does) is simply ridiculous. Like everyone, he could only be a man of his time. It would be just as accurate to say that our modern ideas are throw-backs to the 13th century ideals of Genghis Khan.

I also believe that in his zeal to prove the historical importance of Genghis Khan's influence, the author over-credits the Mongolian Empire with fueling the European Renaissance. Yes, it certainly wielded a huge influence, and the Renaissance probably wouldn't have been possible without the system of global economic and intellectual exchange built and maintained by the Mongols... but the most direct and proximal cause of the Renaissance was the rediscovery of lost classical Greek and Roman texts kept in the Arab Middle East. The Mongolian Empire may have created an environment sympathetic to a cultural rebirth but it was the Arab world that gave Europe it's direct catalyst. I think the author tries too hard to demean that part of it in favor of his personal obsession with Genghis Khan. ( )

the positive side of genocide ( )

4.5 stars ( )

As others have noted: this is really a re-telling of the book "The Secret History" with some stuff tacked on.

So.... it was pretty boring to start with, but got better. Really needed more sources and an editor. Didn't give the feeling of being thorough or deep. Very little about "The Making of the Modern World", though there could have been 100's of pages ('cos the Mongols' influence on the west was very deep)

( )

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. ( )