Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Saying “The Mongols” tends to call to mind hordes of screaming barbarians intent on ravaging the land, looting cities, and destroying everything in their path. Weatherford shows that this depiction is completely unfair as they were actually a very forward-thinking people in many ways.

The book starts with Genghis Khan but it’s not just about him. It covers his rise to power down to his grandson Kublai Khan and a bit further than that. It turns out the Mongol Empire did lay a lot of the groundwork for the modern world. Granted their methods of doing the actual conquering were terrifying and effective (they were designed to be), but once the fighting stopped they operated very differently than any other empire before (or since). show more They didn’t try to impose Mongolian values on everyone. “In probably the first law of its kind anywhere in the world, Genghis Khan decreed complete and total religious freedom for everyone.” Funny to think that it took a ‘mindless barbarian’ to come up with that. No, they were much more interested in learning from each culture they encountered the best way of doing what needed doing. They were always on the lookout for scientists, scholars, doctors, artists, and the like. They also realized that the rich and powerful usually can’t be trusted to serve anything but their own interests, so Genghis Khan instituted a policy of executing the aristocrats right off the bat when he took a city just to avoid trouble later on — and it worked. They laid the foundations for international exchange and trade that are still relevant today.

Now I’m not completely stupid, and I actually stayed awake through most of my schooling, but even so, my education about that part of the world in that period of history was extremely vague. This book fills in a lot of those gaps and addresses why there were gaps in the first place. In Renaissance times, the Mongols were regarded as an exotic people who had the best of everything available to them (which, thanks to their diligent fostering of trade and commerce was largely true). They got fawning mentions by everyone from Giotto to Chaucer. It was during the Age of So-Called Enlightenment that Europeans at least started souring on them, eventually concocting all kinds of pseudo-science classifying them as inferior human beings. That old BS routine, you know.

The writing is clean and smart. The author covers a lot of material without ever getting too bogged down in dates and times and blah blah blah, keeping the narrative moving at an enjoyable pace. He even makes the description of how he did all his research into a sort of adventure story, because it kinda was. So it was a fun read, and I now know stuff I didn’t know before. Win-win. show less

A lot of the negative reviews for this book take issue with its true historicity and its revisionist and somewhat unapologetic agenda. I admit that I got into the book expecting it to be an account of Genghis Khan's conquests with an addendum expounding his legacy, but it was rather the other way around. However, I think it was also quite clear from the outset that Jack Weatherford's aim in this book was not to recount historical facts, but rather to approach the entire perception of the Mongol Empire from a different angle.

I thought the book was well-written and easy to read, and was only after I finished reading it that I realised it's actually almost 15 years old. Although undeniably biased towards the Mongols, it certainly does the show more job of shedding light on elements of the Mongol story that aren't often the focus of historical accounts, and raises some thought provoking points regarding the some more subtle impacts that Genghis Khan had on the world.

Ultimately, to quote Mr Ollivander, I think Genghis Khan has to be considered 'Terrible, but great'. This book may sway slightly too far in favour of the 'great', but it's good to reminded about that perspective of history in a well articulated read. show less

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 show more 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 show less

Much of the story Weatherford unfolds here was news to me. Here in the West, which only briefly felt the wild wrath of the Mongol army at its height, it is hard to understand the extent of Asian awe and fear of what this one man accomplished in a lifetime. If nothing else will convince you--for eight hundred years a huge piece of land in Mongolia, the heart of Genghis Khan's home territory, has been closed to any incursion. First by the Mongol tribes themselves and then by the communists, to ensure that no one went in, so that no scholarship could give rise to any writings that might enflame the Mongolian tribal soul to rebellion. The legend of Genghis is that powerful. It was only after the fall of communism and the withdrawal of the show more Russians (who left a shameful mess of weapons and garbage and pollution around the perimeter of this sacred area, but curiously and significantly never despoiled it) scholarship and exploration almost immediately picked up in the 1990's. A document commissioned by the royal family not long after Genghis death, known as The Secret History, had surfaced now and again over the centuries but was written in such a way that it was tremendously difficult to decipher without intimate knowledge of Genghis' homeland. Weatherford and several other scholars of different kinds, from linguists to archaeologists, explored the area in depth and together were able to 'read' the secrets of the Secret History. And what a story! As unbelievable as it sounds, all Genghis may have ever wanted was peace. At the time of his youth the tribes all fought incessantly. Banished for refusing to submit to another tribal leader in the rigid hereditary hierarchy, he went out on his own. And gradually began to build a new kind of tribe, one depending on merit and earned trust. He acquired followers and they began to conquer more territory so as to feed their horses and families . . . but the further out from his homeland he conquered, the more it became apparent, that he needed to keep going until he had unified everyone into one gigantic entity in order to have real peace. The only reason, really, he stopped where he did in Hungary and the Balkans, is that Europe was too poor and did not have the big grassy plains for his soldier's horses. And the 'after story' - in particular the way nations twisted and abused the story of Genghis Khan to suit their own end made my hair stand on end. Weatherford explains the origins of the vocabulary of Downs Syndrome and the use of the word 'mongoloid'. During the shameful interlude of very bad genetic science in the late 19 and early 20th centuries Downs (!!!!) came up with the completely bizarre idea that these children were throwbacks to the Mongols, from women raped during the invasions 700 centuries earlier!!!!! I mean, REALLY!! It boggles the mind. And people believed this less than a hundred years ago! After their downfall, the Mongols were painted as sub-human, wild and hopelessly violent. But the reality is the opposite. The Mongols with their military inventiveness put an end to the use of heavy armor and feudal walled cities, achieved miracles of fast communication, trade, education, currency.... built bridges and roads everywhere.... the list goes on and on. A great introduction to a fascinating subject. ****

The narration was slightly better than adequate but not fantastic -- and at the end there is an interesting afterword read by Weatherford himself, which leads me to wish he would write another book about his years of traveling around the area with the other scholars and guides. Okay, so just read the book, review over. show less

One of the very few books I've purchased from Costco, author Jack Weatherford takes on a Herculean task in describing the man, the myth, the legend that is Genghis Khan who created one of the geographically largest, most connected, and arguably most innovative empires that this world has ever seen.

Weatherford begins this book with the birth of Genghis Khan, using the name given to him prior to reaching khan status, Temujin. The first half or so of the book relies heavily on a document called 'The Secret History of the Mongols', purportedly a detailed description of Genghis Khan's life by a closely-associated Mongol, apparently translated later by some Chinese, and eventually fully translated to its current state. Those with a show more preference for multiple works-cited for a given event or timeline will be disappointed as Weatherford goes through the first few decades of Temujin's life, since the 'Secret History' is about as much as we know, period, about his upbringing and early adulthood. I suggest keeping these concerns at bay while reading, as the story is worth reading.

As Temujin grows increasingly powerful, the author makes more use of other sources and broader knowledge surrounding the Mongol military tactics, observed expanses of their empire and known interactions with city-states, popes, and other sovereigns. The remainder of the book follows Genghis Khan through his death, but then pleasantly covers the balance of the Mongol Empire, before its disintegration some centuries after Genghis Khan's death. This is both a biography of Genghis and a biography of the broader Mongolian empire, with select descendants of Genghis (especially Kublai Khan) discussed.

I found this to be a really fascinating book. Growing up with an American public school education, I came under the idea that the Mongols were barbarians who more or less got lucky in their conquests and managed to storm across Eurasia by sheer speed and force. Weatherford's book illustrated that the Mongols, and particularly Genghis Khan, were methodical, observant, and innovative, with numerous inventions during their time that can be traced to modern-day weapons and military tactics (the Nazi Blitzkrieg found a source in Mongol combat). An emphasis is placed on the Mongol postal system, which proved invaluable for communications as the empire expanded.

But above all, this book showed that the Mongols were not barbarians, were not exotic and strange creatures, but were highly innovative, disciplined, and guided by a true master strategist in Genghis Khan. Western interpretations of the Mongols as filthy creatures were borne from anti-Mongol rhetoric traced back multiple centuries, as the end of this book describes, and it has unfortunately persisted in modern Western education. Nothing could be further from the truth, and the Mongol Empire deserves a spot amongst history's greatest empires. If only the West (originally in Europe, but now across the hemisphere) had not spawned such vitriol towards the Eastern Hemisphere, this incorrect notion of the Mongols could have been avoided.

Four stars for a book that made me think hard, pause frequently to ponder further, and makes me continue to think and elaborate well after the final page. show less

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 show more 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. show less

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 show more 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. show less