Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
by Jack Weatherford
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jack WeatherfordEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-03-22
ISBN: 0609809644
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Broadway
Book Reviews of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Book Review: A Different View of the Genghis Khan
Summary: 5 Stars
Many people in the west often imagine Genghis Khan as a barely civilized marauder tearing across the land detstroying everything in his path. Jack Weatherford paints a very different picture of the leader in this book. In fact, the author credits Genghis Khan with the creation of the modern world. To provide some examples of ways in which the Mongols transformed the world--they created a system of paper money which revolutionized the world of commerce at the time. Also, Mongols highly prized those with specialized knowledge, so individuals with scientific, technical, or administrative knowledge were moved around to various parts of the empire thus spreading previously localized knowledge to all corners of the earth.
The Mongols also were very open culturally. To provide a good example, one Mongol leader sponsored a religious debate Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists among other religious groups. In this debate, the Christian and Muslim participants often sided together in order to counter the points of argument from the Buddhist side. In the end, the debate ended with a feast. The Mongols went to great lengths to open up the tolerance of members of the empire. In fact, the Mongols were strong supporters of the seperation of church and state, which allowed for a multi-ethic and multi-religious nation to exist as one, something which would not appear again for hundreds of years.
The book details a lot of the advances made during the Mongol period which have influenced the modern world. One of the most interesting ideas that the book presents is that the rise of Europe can be attributed to the rise of the Mongols. In a sense, the Europeans benefited from the modern world system without the downside of having their lands invaded. This is an interesting proposal that deserves to be considered.
I strongly recommend this book. It's brings up a lot of questions that you might not have considered before and helps us to understand that the world was modern perhaps a few hundred years before we imagined.
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