Why read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World?

Book cover of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

Book description

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…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Kenneth W. Harl

Author

This fast-paced, wide-ranging history of Genghis Khan and his successors is by an author with first-hand experience of living among the nomads of the Eurasian steppes.

This work is the best introduction for the general reader on the role of Genghis Khan as a conqueror and ruler as well as the impact of the Mongols on shaping the modern world.

From Kenneth's list on The best book on how the nomadic peoples enriched and shaped civilizations across Eurasia (from their perspective).

Wayne E. Lee

Author

Weatherford turns a biography of Genghis Khan (properly Chinggis Khan) into a vehicle for narrating the rise of the Mongols from a confederation of nomads into the largest land empire in history.

Although we often think of the Mongol Empire as a "state," its origins were decidedly more "tribal" or confederal than state-like. Their motives and methods are essential to understanding the full variety of warfare in the human experience.

From Wayne's list on The best books about war beyond the state.