Published: 31 Dec 2024
Genghis Khan: The Man Who Conquered The World
- Release date: 2015
- Genre: Non-fiction, History, Biography
- Themes/Moods: Slow-paced, Informative, Challenging
- Rating: 3/5
A book full of fascinating and interesting information about Genghis Khan and by extension the Mongols (the title is slightly misleading, more of an overview about the Mongols rise to power under the Khan), with lots of interesting nuggets of information here and there (the poisonous effect of alcohol on Mongol society was an interesting, if minor, tidbit to learn) albeit often sandwiched between an awful lot of detailed, yet tedious, descriptions around the military movements, campaigns and conquests of the Mongol armies. Once you got the picture of how the Mongols were so successful militarily (largely boiling down to superior logistics, communication, manoeuvrability and feigned retreats), although there are still some valuable threads contained within that redundancy, for example learning siege warfare from scratch (mainly vs. the Jin Chinese) to the point of successfully conquering many walled cities and fortresses.
The best parts were everything apart from the rote recitation of military movements, dissecting the few existing sources of Mongolia that existed at the time, from Genghis’ rise through the ranks to unify the Steppe (by no means a surefire thing based on Steppe and Clan culture), bureaucracy built from its infancy in order to control tax, and integrate the massive sedentary population the nomadic Mongols had conquered and other such details. You just have to work for it, cutting through the numerous military campaigns. The writing style of McLynn doesn’t do the subject much favours either, a strange mix of dry but also over-eloquent at times - often subtracting from the material rather than adding, unfortunately, given the breadth and depth of writing on show (and the numerous addendums such as the index of names, footnotes and other references). A worthwhile read, but one will have to continue the search for the definitive book around Genghis Khan and the rise of the Mongols.
