Customer Reviews

Genghis Khan and the Mongol Conquests 1190-1400 (Essential Histories)

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Although I am a fan of Stephen Turnbull's earlier works on the Japanese Samurai and the Teutonic Knights, there is something basically wrong with his latest volume for Osprey's Essential Histories on the Mongols. First, Genghis Khan himself is only the discussed in about 10% of the volume and Turnbull certainly provides no fresh insights on this famed leader. Indeed, basic questions such as whether or not Genghis Khan should be considered as one of the great captains of history are never raised. Second, Turnbull bounces around chronologically too much; he is continually discussing one campaign, then reverting to discuss an earlier campaign in another area. Third, Turnbull focuses strictly on the military aspects of the Mongol Conquests (virtually ignoring the economic, social and political aspects), then actually tells us very little about the actual military aspects. Fourth, the actual period of Mongol conquests was in 1206-1294, not 1190-1400, and the bulk of the narrative actually focuses on a 60-year period. Finally, Turnbull's entire overly simplistic hypothesis is that the Mongol's success was due to their amazing ability to adapt to new circumstances and learn new military techniques. However, Turnbull concludes that the Mongol conquests ended because of their failures to adapt to the harsh theater of war in Southeast Asia and their gradual conversion from steppe nomads to urban dwellers. Huh? They won because they were adaptable, but they eventually lost because they adapted in the cities but not the jungles. A look at the barren bibliography, with only four non-Turnbull sources, clearly indicates a half-hearted effort on the author's part.

Genghis Khan & the Mongol Conquests 1190-1400 begins with a short introduction and chronology, followed by a brief section on the rise of the Mongols. The three-page section on the Mongols and their adversaries is totally inadequate, although Turnbull strives to make the point that the Mongol armies were not immune to logistical constraints. The outbreak of war section covers the Khwarazm campaign in 1219-1221and the Afghan War, but then this is followed by the fighting in China in 1211-1234, making this narrative difficult to follow chronologically. Turnbull's 44-page narrative on the main Mongols campaigns of 1211-1281 is the best part of the volume, particularly the campaigns in Korea/Japan and the Mideast. Portrait of a soldier showcases the Mongol general Subadai, but also includes more campaign detail. The section on how the war ended focuses on the jungle campaigns in Burma, Vietnam and Java where the Mongol advance finally petered out. There are eight maps supporting the narrative: the Mongol Empire 1190-1400; the conquest of the Khwarazm Empire; Mongol conquests in Korea and China; the Mongol invasion of Europe; the Battle of Mohi 1241; Mongol campaigns in the Mideast; the Mongol invasions of Japan; and the Mongol campaigns in Southeast Asia.

There are a number of interesting episodes in the long Mongol wars that Turnbull highlights, such as the five-year long siege of Xiangyang in China and the odd situation of Crusaders, Mamluks and Mongols facing each other in the Mideast in 1260. Turnbull is particularly adept in demonstrating how the steppe-born Mongols quickly learned siege warfare techniques and naval expeditionary warfare. Yet while Turnbull succeeds in praising Mongol tactical adaptability, he fails on the larger issues, such as explaining the Mongol drive for conquest. How did an obscure steppe people, never great in numbers, conquer the greatest land empire in history? Why were the Mongol enemies so unable to offer effective resistance - why couldn't they learn or adapt? Due to the operational-level focus of Turnbull's summary, this volume will not be useful for readers asking questions on the macro-level of geo-politics. Furthermore, the "adaptability" thesis presented for Mongol successes by Turnbull does not really answer the question of why this whirlwind phenomenon was able to arise out of nowhere and conquer the bulk of Eurasia in a lifetime. While the "adaptability" hypothesis is certainly better than the old "Mongol horde" claptrap, it probably only addresses the Mongol side of the equation (just as suggesting superior armored warfare doctrine explains German success in 1940, but it does not explain French collapse).

Genghis Khan & the Mongol Conquests is a book from a series called "Essential Histories." From what I have seen from this book, this series shows the essentially detailed and not the basics, which is often times much more useful. This book is titled Genghis Khan & the Mongol Conquests, yet there is barely anything at all of the great Khan's life. This is what the book says about Genghis Khan's childhood: "The nomad world he entered was a fierce and unforgiving one of rivalry and survival skills. Like all Mongol children, Temuchin learned to ride with great skill and to handle a bow and arrows." That's it. Any given internet site would give more information than that! In fact, for his life story, I often had to turn to web sites. The battles and campaigns were described in great detail. However, even with its immense wealth of knowledge about campaigns, I found the book unfulfilling. Half of the campaigns were Kublai Khan's, and whenever Genghis Khan's death was mentioned, it was no more than a paragraph. DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU WANT A GENGHIS KHAN REFERENCE!!!

I have always wondered when discussing the Mongol Empire if one should pluralize the word `empire.' The Mongol Empire was the largest land continuous empire the world had ever seen before or since. Genghis Kahn had two things Alexander the Great did not: a longer life, and successors to continue the conquest. I have long believed that had Alexander lived, however, his empire would have stabilized and lasted, instead of dissolving away leaving the world almost sooner then it came. The Mongol Empire fragments into many empires and kingdoms and despite their many organizational enhancements they were not every good at governing what they had conquered. In many ways, those who were the conquered had a stronger effect, culturally, on those who conquered them the Mongols had on those they had conquered.

Stephen Turnbull's work is a good look brief look into the juggernaut that was the Mongol Empire. He discusses some of the inaccuracies and misconceptions that are associated with the Mongol army. As I have stated in other reviews of this series, these books are very interesting because they are in an almost textbook format with out really having a textbook feel to them. In this book, there are maps, classical paintings of events, and art from various cultures that had to deal with the Mongol armies. One chapter even deals with horror ordinary people who were their victims had to experience.

"Throughout all the accounts of the Mongol conquests we can discern in the background an echo of great human suffering. Ordinary people from Poland to Java, who under any other circumstance might have lived lives that may have been short but were certainly uneventful, suddenly found their world turned upside down by a horde of demons apparently let loose from the depths of Hell." p.76

The Mongol Empire had fought peoples all the way from Europe into Japan, a great deal of their success was owed to organization and their ability to change and adapt. This book serves as a good little into the Empire and Army of the Golden Horde.

It's puzzling that this book in hardcover lists for $73 and then was discounted to $45. It's a 96-page summary, a quick read for a Sunday afternoon. If you must have it, you'll find used paperback versions for five bucks.

The book is somewhat useful for a reader unfamiliar with the Mongol conquests looking for a quick background. It offers a few thoughts on the origins of the Mongols, some timelines of their invasions and a few snapshots of key battles and campaigns. Not bad as far as it goes, but not much more than that.

There are several problems:
- there are frequent maps, but they are out of place and oddly out of synch with the text. Place names are spelled one way in the text but another way in the map, or are repeatedly mentioned in the text and don't appear at all in the map.
- the book's editing is choppy and sloppy. It feels like this is the streamlined, cut-down version of a much longer text. You'll turn a page, expecting a concept to be fleshed out only to find the chapter has concluded. There are several typos and conflations of names and events.
- the key Battle of Mohi, the culmination of the Hungary campaign, which should be discussed in the section on the invasion of Europe is strangely cut-and-pasted into the biographical section at the end of the book about General Subadai. So readers will find maps and photos of this important battle on page 53, but no description whatsoever. Then later, when reading an appendix chapter on Subadai we find the missing text.
- the author has a passion for 13th century arms and lovingly explains, for example, that a "counterweight trebuchet" is far superior to a "traction trebuchet". No further explanation of these weapons is offered, leaving this reader scrambling for an encyclopedia. If an obscure artifact merits such frequent mention, surely the author can take a moment to describe it for the non-expert readers for whom this sort of book is surely designed.

The book can be read in a few hours and contains some useful background on Genghis and the Mongols, but if you already know anything about the topic, this won't be of value.

This book, like so many in the Osprey series "Essential Histories" provides a very good and succinct overview of its topic despite its relatively short length of 94 pages (a good third of which are illustrations). Unlike even lengthier books on the subject it covers not only the Mongol's major campaigns in Russia, Europe, Middle East and China but their peripheral campaigns in Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia and even Java. It does an excellent job at discussing these campaigns and showing what the key attribute to the Mongols success was - incredible flexibility and adaptability, phenomenal ruthlessness and great mobility. There is also a discussion of the equipment used by them and their major opponents.

Unfortunately the book does have a few weaknesses that justify not granting it a five star, as opposed to only four star, rating. This includes a lack of any analysis or discussion of who Genghis Khan himself or his immediate successors were and how they were able to unite the historically divided Mongol tribes. After all, if this would not have been done the very campaigns and military success discussed in the book would never have been possible. Considering the fact these tribes were bitter rivals and never united in their history, either before or since, was quite a feat in and by itself. Another weakness, albeit minor compared to the one just cited, is a lack of illustrations regarding what the Mongol warriors and their major opponents looked like (although there are pictures of contemporaneous statues).

All and all, for anyone desiring an introduction that only touches on this topic (as opposed to examining it in depth) with only about an hour to an hour and a half to spare, this is the book to read.

I didn't read this book from cover to cover, but mainly dipped into the latter part, from which I learned about events such as the Mongol invasion of Java of which I was unaware, as well as learning more about the Mongol invasion of Japan than I had known before. I am not particularly a student of Genghis Khan and the Mongal conquests, but do feel reasonably well informed on events up to 1260. Thus the material concerning events after 1260 was what I was interested in, and I feel the book did a fine, informative job on that. So for me the book was excellent, and I give it 5 stars on that basis.