Reddit reviews Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

if you want to learn more about genghis khan I would highly recommend this book http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609610627

It's not incredibly in-depth, but I quite enjoyed Jack Weatherford's Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Overall, an entertaining and informative read.

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

I love Genghis Khan, but I honestly found the film rather boring; it was very meandering and uneventful. It was a case of style over substance, and didn't touch on nearly enough of what he did and what happened to him. The ending is extremely blunt and shallow, there are a number of plot points that are unresolved, and then they just scroll a few pages of text over the screen to try to explain a few things away.

If you want to know about Genghis Khan, I recommend Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. If you want to watch a movie loosely based on Genghis Khan that focuses on war and a lackluster love story, watch Mongol.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0609610627

Ghengis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. Utterly fascinating, and reads more clearly than most history books I've encountered to date.

His aim was to unite all the tribes under the blue sky in honor of the sky spirit he worshipped.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0609610627

Check it out if you're interested. Good read.

Was gonna answer but then I noticed someone already did, so same thing but different source

I have to disagree. We have lots of reports of cities willingly opening their doors to Genghis rather than fight him because of how horribly he would treat civilian populations who resisted, not because he was nice. You are right that war atrocities were much more common back then and the standard for cruelty was much higher- but that is all the more reason to think he was especially horrible. If he was considered shocking and horrible by people back then who were more used to that kind of stuff, then we should consider him more horrible, not less. I mean, it takes a special kind of cruel to get Crusaders to freak out.

The reason he didn't have to lay siege all the time and put down rebellions is because of how cruel his conquests were, not because he was nicer than we think. You mentioned that the Mongols created their reputation but they did so by actually doing horrible things and then letting some survivors go to warn others. I recommend Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World or Dan Carlin's recent Hardcore History podcasts on the subject if you're interested.

horse archers vs. samurai, there's a great book on the mongols by jack weatherford link

The Mongols are incorrectly lumped in with the regular form of barbarian as you might expect of a Gaul, or Viking.

Weatherford discusses in his book on Genghis Khan that any group which was willing to surrender would be treated kindly and added to the Mongolian Empire without bloodshed. As a token of his appreciation Genghis would take a wife from that group literally making them apart of his tribe.

http://www.amazon.com/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609610627

I read this book. The mongols had a very efficient communication and administrative system. In addition, the mongols were very lenient towards cooperative tribes/cities under their control but ruthless towards uncooperative ones.

Awesome book on Genghis Kahn and the empire after his death that I highly recommend:

Genghis Kahn And The Making Of The Modern World