Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack WeatherfordMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is exactly what I'm looking for in a history book: riveting storytelling that pulls from documented texts, compelling insight into the way the subject at hand rippled through time to shape our lives today, a vibrantly written and gripping structure and voice, and unobtrusive first-hand impressions of the writer from their research and travels to the places in question. I drove the guys in the band a little crazy telling them Mongol facts.
I read this a few years ago, but making these notes now I am almost tempted to go back and read this book again. But I say "almost" because a review I read when I finished this book in 2018 has bothered me ever since. That review called into question Weatherford's choice to write two books about the Mongols, being this one and The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire. This volume goes into great (and fascinating) detail about the sons of Genghis Khan, while barely touching on his daughters. From the reviews, however, the Queens book shows those daughters as central to the story. As I recall, this review questioned whether modern-day gender politics on the bookstore shelf may have played a role in telling the "male" history and the "female" history in separate volumes.
So instead of re-reading this book again, I'll move on to Mongol Queens, make up my own mind about the politics, then perhaps loop back around and make my own Machete Order of Mongol History. (How fitting.)
I read this a few years ago, but making these notes now I am almost tempted to go back and read this book again. But I say "almost" because a review I read when I finished this book in 2018 has bothered me ever since. That review called into question Weatherford's choice to write two books about the Mongols, being this one and The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire. This volume goes into great (and fascinating) detail about the sons of Genghis Khan, while barely touching on his daughters. From the reviews, however, the Queens book shows those daughters as central to the story. As I recall, this review questioned whether modern-day gender politics on the bookstore shelf may have played a role in telling the "male" history and the "female" history in separate volumes.
So instead of re-reading this book again, I'll move on to Mongol Queens, make up my own mind about the politics, then perhaps loop back around and make my own Machete Order of Mongol History. (How fitting.)
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