Customer Reviews

Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy

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3 star:		(4)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Those who want an exciting and romantically embelished account of Temujin's (Genghis Khan) life should stick with Harold Lamb. His account is certainly more fun, but also laced with poetic license that at times becomes outright misleading. Lamb is an introduction to the story of the emperor of all men.

But Ratchnevsky is the top of the line reference to Temujin and his amzing life. He weighs the evidence and directs the reader to the lesser known aspects of Temujin's life.

Nowhere else will you find mentioned that Temujin probably had disappeared for ten years to China before his comeback in the late 1190ies.

Few point out that Temujin was not the most daring of men, more of a planner than a fighter and not above saving himself first.

Rachnevskies book paints a less glorious, but much more realistic and human picture of the man who changed the world forever. Temujin's actions have been accounted for in many sources, but few allow us to understand his motives.

Instead of inventing awe inspiring moments, as Lamb does, and putting words into the mouth of the man, Rachnevsky presents the different sources and versions diligently; and strangely, this allows a better understanding who this great Mongol was than all the literary fancy of Lamb or the sycophantic impropabilities of Malik Juvayni.

Lamb and Malik Juvayni have their own merits, and are a must have for all who want to explore this amazing part of history, but without Rachnevskies scholarly integrity, true understanding would elude most.

Not for the casual reader, but Temujin deserves on less than full attention.

The book is well written and informative but I found it diffucult to read. I don't think it was written for the layman. Too much technical jargon. I wanted to know more about how the mongols actually lived and fought. Where did they get their weapons, how did they survive the cold winters and what made them so tough. Still looking for this type of book on Genghis Khan and the mongols.

I have several books on the Mongols and this one has been, by far, the more informative of the bunch. When telling stories or writing about the Mongols, I rely much more heavily on this study, using it as the standard for texts covering the same or similar incidents in my other Mongol books.

There are few sources available to research Genghis Khan & the author does a sound job of sifting & comparing these accounts. Despite the dearth of reliable information the nature of the Khan, his relationships, strengths & weaknesses, are conveyed to the reader adequately, albeit with certain amount of "poetic licence." The book starts slowly with general background information on the Mongols involving a huge number of uninteligible & pretty much unpronouncable names. It is a difficult read here. However, when Genghis makes his appearance & is actually the subject matter of the text, the book does take off. I enjoyed learning more about a larger than life character & I feel that few authors could have got to grips with the warrior khan better.Whilst not being a big fan of footnotes, I do think that this account would have flowed much better if the author had made his decisions & just put forward the information he was proposing, detailing his sources later. The casual reader would have benefited from a smoother read & the scholar could have verified the reasoning later.

I've read over 20 books on Genghis Khan's life and legacy. Without any doubt Ratchevsky's book is a stand out. Book itself is 213 pages, 85 pages is devoted to notes. Considering that Ratchevsky translation of Secret History became an Outstanding Academic Title in 2005 rest assure you're reading a right book on the subject. If you get to read just one book or 20 + you can't miss this book. Besides his major work on Secret History Rachevsky made Un Code des Yuan a three volume work. In my eyes no other western writer has better grip on the subject and vivid understanding of the culture. Highly addictive!

Westerners are often shocked to hear that in Mongolia today, Genghis is revered as a national hero and the father of the country. Indeed, even in China - a victim of the Mongols - Genghis is regarded as a great man. Not China's great man, of course, but a great man nevertheless. I know, speaking as an ethnic Chinese myself. By contrast, Europeans know Genghis as something like a cross between a medieval Hitler and Anti-Christ.

This book is indeed a little confusing, given all those proper names. Despite its conciseness, it is not written for the casual reader. I confess I have trouble understanding it. I advise those of us who are not experts in Asian history to read the relevant chapters in Frederick Mote's "Imperial China," which I think is very instructive on the Mongol period, and has a good deal to say about Timujin (Genghis) himself, from his ancestry and birth on.

There isn't a plethora of books devoted to Genghis Khan out there and this may stem from a lack of historical information. No doubt, a large part of accepted knowledge is lore or estimation. Having an avid interest in asian history as a whole, I eagerly started this book. I was soon keenly looking forward to the kernels of interesting narrative that dot the book throughout. However, the uninspiring space between those kernels is daunting and requires determination. It may also require a tally board as one attempts to keep up with the family, allies, liaisons, enemies, followers, and friends of this Mongol warlord. Read it for the knowledge gained, but don't waste a rainy day, La-Z-Boy, fireside opportunity on the effort.

A great book, though shorter than I would've expected. I imagine this brevity is due more to the dearth of information on Temuchin than anything else. Offers not only a history of the Mongols and their greatest leader, but a fairly objective study of his measure as a man.

This book was very surprisingly well done. I am from Mongolia and I think that most Western writers hardly know the real life of Genghis Khan. They all have their own false stereotypes. This author did very good job. He displays various information from various sources, then evaluates them, and finally shows which one is the most accurate.

This book is perhaps one of the best sources of information on Genghis Khan. Ratchnevsky uses the little infomation thats available and tries to piece together Genghis' life and does a great job of doing that. With that said this book needs more detail and could easily be twice this length. Great book for research on Genghis Khan but stay away if you are looking for a weekend read.