daedelys - reviewed on 12/7/2009 + 1218 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

I absolutely loved this book and the detailed story-telling quality of the history of Genghis Khan and the Mongul empire. (I prefer to use this spelling "Genghis", as the book does, and not the lesser known "Chinggis", as it was only used a couple of times in book. Even though we know it's the origin of his commonly-known name, I think it's less confusing and less presumptuous.)

There was a lot that I remember from history courses I had taken, but a lot I either didn't remember or hadn't heard before. As I read, I couldn't help but think that there was a lot humans should have learned from this man and kept as a part of culture throughout the years afterwards (free religion, women's rights, free trade, etc.). Instead I have to look back on it and think that it's a shame that so many things his empire pioneered took so long are now more recently something we take for granted today. Granted, there was brute force backing those who opposed, but it was still impressive to see so much ingenuity that benefit the people come out of something as ugly as war. Unlike today when the only creativity is who can make a bigger gun.

There are really just too many good qualities about this book and I felt the research was well-done despite what some of the author's critics may have thought. Reading it just made me relive the wonder and amazement at discovering that high school history essentially misrepresents such a remarkable man and makes us believe he was nothing other than a "barbarian".

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