As a teenager he was an outcast fleeing enemies on a mountain in northern Mongolia, an exile, a nobody. But this is a great introduction to Genghis Khan, in my opinion.Genghis Khan is history's greatest conqueror. You want to get more scholarly? Go for it.
So, while I've read other reviews that count that style as a distraction, or a negative, I need to weigh in here and say that to me it was unique and absorbing. I also think it's interesting to get the perspectives of the people currently living in the region on the legacy of this remarkable man. I found this absolutely engaging and relevant. As such, it's part popular history, part travelogue, with anecdotes about modern Mongolia and the people interspersed with the historical record. The thing that's different about this is that the historical information is interspersed with the author's travels across China and Mongolia in search of sites and information about Genghis. I found this book for half price and so picked it up, even though some people complained about the style.
I didn't know much of anything about Genghis Khan but had always been curious, his name has such resonance, even without all the context. Despite that subject being of more interest to me than this one, I found the style of this book much more readable. I've read one other book by John Man, his book on the alphabet. Yes, at one point his empire touched on the eastern borders of Central Europe, but is this enough? Even though he built up a large empire, it was nonetheless in a part of the world that still largely remains unknown to Western Europeans. I also think more emphasis could have been placed of why I, sitting comfortably in Western Europe today, should care about Genghis's life. I think the maps could have better: more of them inserted at the appropriate point, with clear indications of where these locations are today.
On the whole, I liked the approach in this book and even at times preferred the author's narrations of his own journeys and investigations to the dry history. You really get a feel for Genghis's ongoing importance in China and Mongolia and the wider region, as well for the times in which he lived. Overall this is a very readable and interesting biography.
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