Read by Jonathan Davis

Apart from its inapt title, Genghis Khan dies rather early on in this
account and many of the battles are led by his numerous offspring. This
book is a successful account of the century of turmoil brought to the
world by a then little-known nation of itinerant hunters. In researching
this book, Weatherford (Savages and Civilization), a professor of anthropology
at Macalaster College, traveled thousands of miles, many on horseback,
tracing Genghis Khan's steps into places unseen by Westerners since
the khan's death and employing what he calls an "archeology of movement."
Weatherford knows the story of the medieval Mongol conquests is gripping
enough not to need superfluous embellishments.."the personalities and
the wars they waged provide plenty of color and suspense. In just 25
years, in a manner that inspired the blitzkrieg, the Mongols conquered
more lands and people than the Romans had in over 400 years. Without
pausing for too many digressions, Weatherford's brisk description of
the Mongol military campaign and its revolutionary aspects analyzes
the rout of imperial China, a siege of Baghdad and the razing of numerous
European castles. On a smaller scale, Weatherford also devotes much
attention to dismantling our notions of Genghis Khan as a brute. By
his telling, the great general was a secular but faithful Christian,
a progressive free trader, a regretful failed parent and a loving if
polygamous husband. With appreciative descriptions of the sometimes
tender tyrant, this chronicle supplies just enough personal and world
history to satisfy any reader.

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