Genghis Khan: And the Making of the Modern World

Description

The conventional view of Genghis Khan as a ruthless leader who destroyed societies is turned on its head in this New York Times bestseller. Scholar and researcher Jack Weatherford shows how Khan was the first ruler to grant religious freedom and how he instituted diplomatic immunity and outlawed torture. Most significantly, Weatherford demonstrates how Khan was responsible for uniting East and West, laying the foundations for the modern nation-state and global economic systems. This truly is revisionist history at its very best.

Jack Weatherfordis theNew York Timesbestsellingauthor ofGenghis Khan and the Making ofthe Modern World;Indian Givers- Howthe Indians of the AmericasTransformed the World;The Secret History of the Mongol Queens; andThe History of Money,among other acclaimedbooks. A specialist in tribal peoples, he was for manyyears a professor of anthropology at Macalaster College in Minnesota anddivides his time between the USand Mongolia.

"There is very little time for reading in my new job. But of the few books I've read, my favourite is Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford (Crown Publishers, New York). It's a fascinating book portraying Genghis Khan in a totally new light. It shows that he was a great secular leader, among other things." -Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India "Reads like the Iliad. . . Part travelogue, part epic narrative." -Washington Post "It's hard to think of anyone else who rose from such inauspicious beginnings to something so awesome, except maybe Jesus." -Harper's "Weatherford's lively analysis restores the Mongol's reputation, and it takes wonderful learned detours. . . . Well written and full of suprises." -Kirkus Reviews "Weatherford is a fantastic storyteller. . . . [His] portrait of Khan is drawn with sufficiently self-complicating depth. . . . Weatherford's account gives a generous view of the Mongol conqueror at his best and worst." -Minneapolis Star Tribune