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  • Published: 1 November 2010
  • ISBN: 9781409045441
  • Imprint: Transworld Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 464
Categories:

Genghis Khan




The first popular biography of the legendary Mongol emperor and warlord.

Genghis Khan - creator of the greatest empire the world has ever seen - is one of history's immortals. In Central Asia, they still use his name to frighten children. In China, he is honoured as the founder of a dynasty. In Mongolia he is the father of the nation. In the USA, Time magazine, voted Genghis Khan 'the most important person of the last millennium'. But how much do we really know about this man? How is it that an unlettered, unsophisticated warrior-nomad came to have such a profound effect on world politics that his influence can still be felt some 800 years later?
How he united the deeply divided Mongol peoples and went on to rule an empire that stretched from China in the east to Poland in the west (one substantially larger than Rome's at its zenith) is an epic tale of martial genius and breathtaking cruelty. John Man's towering achievement in this book, enriched by his experiences in China and Mongolia today, is to bring this little-known story vividly and viscerally to life.

  • Published: 1 November 2010
  • ISBN: 9781409045441
  • Imprint: Transworld Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 464
Categories:

About the author

John Man

John Man is a historian and travel writer with a special interest in Mongolia. After reading German and French at Oxford he did two postgraduate courses, one in the history of science at Oxford, the other in Mongolian at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

John has written acclaimed and highly successful biographies of Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun and Kublai Khan as well as Alpha Beta, on the history of the alphabet, and The Gutenberg Revolution, on the invention of printing.

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Praise for Genghis Khan

A fine, well-written and well-researched book

MAIL ON SUNDAY

Absorbing and beautifully written...he [Man] conjures up an ancient people in an alien landscape in such a way as to make them live...a thrilling account

GUARDIAN

An eloquent account, not only of a fascinating historical figure and his people, but of the resonance of history itself

WBQ magazine

Enthralling and colourful

INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

'Fascinating...every bit as gripping as its subject deserves...vividly captures the warlord's charisma, together with the mixture of ruthlessness, military genius and self-belief which, Man argues, made him the greatest leader ever...History doesn't come much more enthralling than this'

Yorkshire Evening Post

First-rate...lively and argued with elan...a fine introduction to the subject, as well as a rattling good read

INDEPENDENT

For those who might want to learn more about Genghis and those who followed him, I recommend the wonderful John Man book Genghis Khan: Life, Death and Resurrection.

Conn Iggulden, author of Bones of the Hills

John Man's brilliant, vivid and erudite Genghis Khan brings conqueror and Mongols to life

Simon Sebag Montefiore

'Man is an excellent guide...well-versed in Mongolian, he has travelled extensively in the country while researching the more mysterious elements of Genghis' life, and this experience shines through the book...he writes knowledgeably'

Literary Review