If you're going to make a stir, you might as well do it in style. And Gavin Menzies has caused one, big time. In 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, this retired Royal Navy submarine commander, who only visited China for the first time on his 25th wedding anniversary, claims that the Chinese navigator Zheng He discovered America some 71 years before Columbus. And not content with this, he goes on to suggest that Zheng He learnt how to calculate longitude several centuries before John Harrison supposedly nailed the problem. Unsurprisingly, this has not gone down too well in some areas and the book has been the target of some scepticism.

Although Menzies has unearthed a few unknown primary sources, the bulk of his thesis depends on amalgamating several disparate areas of research into a grand unified theory. So he combines what we do know--principally that the Chinese built huge sailing ships with nine masts and that Asiatic chickens were discovered in South America--into what he considers compelling evidence. Menzies has also turned up some maps from the pre-Columbus era that appear to show the Americas, along with a few shipwrecks and Ming artefacts from along his supposed route.

It all makes for a gripping read, even if the sum doesn't quite add up to the whole. For all the detail, Menzies is some way off providing proof. None of the supposed 28,000 colonists has left any documentary evidence because all records, boats and shipyards associated with his voyage were burnt by imperial order in 1433. This surely begs the question--if we know so much of Zheng He's voyages around the Indian Ocean, how come we know nothing of his trips further east? Nor, conveniently for Menzies, did any of the colonists return home in triumph. They either died en route or skulked home to obscurity after they were disowned by the emperor.

So you either accept Menzies as an act of faith or brush him aside with scepticism. Either way, you'll have a lot of fun in the process as the book is never less than provocative. And even the sceptics will find themselves hoping Menzies has got it right, because there's something intrinsically uplifting about the notion of an amateur historian getting one over the professionals. --John Crace

Tedious and unconvincing, 20 Dec 2008
Fascinating story, but it rapidly became clear as I worked through the book that Menzies is prepared to accept pretty much anything anyone tells him as "evidence". The story starts with the well documented and widely accepted story of Zheng He and the treasure fleets of the early Ming dynasty. These were remarkable vessels and their story, and the large amount of evidence behind it, is ably covered in "When China ruled the seas" by Louise Levathes. The difference between the two authors is that Levathes (mostly) restricts herself to what the evidence supports, while Menzies is happy to accept the flimsiest of conjectures as proof positive.

The actual evidence for Chinese voyages runs out at the eastern coast of Africa and on the Australian coast. But Menzies quite happily extrapolates beyond this. Evidence of Chinese genes and customs in parts of the US? Must have been the treasure fleet (never mind that there have been plenty of other historical contacts). A map purportedly showing the northern coast of Eurasia before it was charted by the Russians? Treasure fleet must have dunnit. A natural rock formation in the Bahamas bearing some visual resemblance to a built structure. Obviously the Chinese made it - based on nothing other than Menzies' claim that the formation has dimensions similar to the largest ships in the fleet.

Menzies is either extremely gullible, or he's taking his audience for a ride on the scale of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail". I wouldn't mind if it were an exhilarating ride, but it's rather long and tedious and just no fun at all. If you want alternative history, can I suggest Harry Turtledove or Michael Moorcock as rather more entertaining?


Risible, flea-brained stupidity, 07 Sep 2008
There is such a thing as a work of fantasy. This is book is just that. No evidence whatsoever. No proof. No circumstantial evidence. Pure tosh from start to finish. This is no more history than books on Atlantis are history.
Do youselves a favour - if Sino-European history interests you, buy a good, well-respected, well-researched work on the subject. Leave foolishness like this to the idiots.

An interesting read, 30 Aug 2008
The basic premise of this book is that prior to the European voyages of discovery a massive fleet of ships left China and ended up circumnavigating the globe and on the way discovered North and South America, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand and Greenland. The author, Gavin Menzies, is a former Royal Navy submarine commander and as such much of his evidence is based on his knowledge of currents and wind direction when compared to maps that predate the voyages of Columbus. He goes on to use a number of other sources of evidence to back up his case including, among other things, the presence of mysterious wrecks scattered the globe, the presence of animals and plants outside their native lands before Europeans reached them and the diaries of the first European explorers themselves.

While much of the evidence presented in this book is thought provoking and definitely worthy of further study there are many pieces that are open to other interpretation and some that can only be described as circumstantial. I feel some of the problem that this book has is that it doesn't generally present its evidence in the best way possible being overly repetitious in places and being a bit too informal in others. Overall 1421 is an interesting book that does present many new questions for historians on the accepted view of the voyages discovery but it does require more research.

Lovely PR hype - but sadly fairly rubbish history, 19 Jun 2008
You'd hope for more from a former Royal Navy commander, but sadly while his publicity machine is first rate, his history is anything but.

It would be lovely to turn what we know about naval history on its head and say that the Chinese Admiral Zheng He conclusively 'discovered' America or Australia long before any European navigators/explorers.

Unfortunately, this book falls into the category of what publishers call "wa-wa" history. In other words, it ain't true - and the historical reseach is shoddy.

The publishers know it's rubbish. We the public know it's rubbish, but we buy it anyway. And so they publish, because they know we'll buy it and they'll make money. In other words we get the books we deserve. We should be reading decent, reseach-based histories - but we find them rather dull so we don't....

Despite the welter of 5 and 4 star reviews this book has garnered on Amazon, it is important - before you buy it - to note one important fact.

Not ONE single naval historian has given any credence to these claims. Not any European - nor any Chinese - historian. In fact, they all say that the evidence is not there.

While other readers seem to like this book, I have to say that having read other books on global trade and sea voyages in the pre-modern era, I found Menzies style very confusing and it was very difficult to follow his train of thought and how he was using evidence to support his conclusions

Astonishingly, Menzies seems to have ignored two key pieces of Chinese evidence for Zheng He's voyages which list the countries he visited - and don't mention anything that could be America.

In fact Menzies does not read Chinese and there are no direct quotes from any articles or studies written in Chinese. Which is pretty gob-smacking when you think the book is about a Chinese Admiral!

The book may be entertaining, and I am sure Gavin Menzies is a nice bloke etc etc. But that ain't enough. For me his book was full of circular reasoning, speculation, distorted sources and slapdash research.

Or as has already been said - this book may well prove to be the Piltdown Man of literature and should only be classified as fiction.

You may think this is a case of the little man, the amateur, beating the massed hords of the professionals. That is always a very beguiling image, but it's the wrong one to picture.

This book is a triumph for publishing hype and muddled thinking and writing. For that reason we should give it a wide berth. Unless of course you actually like your history as fiction. In which case, be my guest. However, you have been warned....

Mind boggling pseudo-history, 25 May 2008
His far-fetched theories, while very interesting, have no scientific basis.
Any curious fact stated in the book that was checked by a (reputable) scientists was found false.
Read the well researched and scientifically sound "When China Ruled the Seas" by Louise Levathes, or check the Internet sites at & to understand the hoax...

Tedious and unconvincing, 20 Dec 2008
Fascinating story, but it rapidly became clear as I worked through the book that Menzies is prepared to accept pretty much anything anyone tells him as "evidence". The story starts with the well documented and widely accepted story of Zheng He and the treasure fleets of the early Ming dynasty. These were remarkable vessels and their story, and the large amount of evidence behind it, is ably covered in "When China ruled the seas" by Louise Levathes. The difference between the two authors is that Levathes (mostly) restricts herself to what the evidence supports, while Menzies is happy to accept the flimsiest of conjectures as proof positive.

The actual evidence for Chinese voyages runs out at the eastern coast of Africa and on the Australian coast. But Menzies quite happily extrapolates beyond this. Evidence of Chinese genes and customs in parts of the US? Must have been the treasure fleet (never mind that there have been plenty of other historical contacts). A map purportedly showing the northern coast of Eurasia before it was charted by the Russians? Treasure fleet must have dunnit. A natural rock formation in the Bahamas bearing some visual resemblance to a built structure. Obviously the Chinese made it - based on nothing other than Menzies' claim that the formation has dimensions similar to the largest ships in the fleet.

Menzies is either extremely gullible, or he's taking his audience for a ride on the scale of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail". I wouldn't mind if it were an exhilarating ride, but it's rather long and tedious and just no fun at all. If you want alternative history, can I suggest Harry Turtledove or Michael Moorcock as rather more entertaining?


Risible, flea-brained stupidity, 07 Sep 2008
There is such a thing as a work of fantasy. This is book is just that. No evidence whatsoever. No proof. No circumstantial evidence. Pure tosh from start to finish. This is no more history than books on Atlantis are history.
Do youselves a favour - if Sino-European history interests you, buy a good, well-respected, well-researched work on the subject. Leave foolishness like this to the idiots.

An interesting read, 30 Aug 2008
The basic premise of this book is that prior to the European voyages of discovery a massive fleet of ships left China and ended up circumnavigating the globe and on the way discovered North and South America, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand and Greenland. The author, Gavin Menzies, is a former Royal Navy submarine commander and as such much of his evidence is based on his knowledge of currents and wind direction when compared to maps that predate the voyages of Columbus. He goes on to use a number of other sources of evidence to back up his case including, among other things, the presence of mysterious wrecks scattered the globe, the presence of animals and plants outside their native lands before Europeans reached them and the diaries of the first European explorers themselves.

While much of the evidence presented in this book is thought provoking and definitely worthy of further study there are many pieces that are open to other interpretation and some that can only be described as circumstantial. I feel some of the problem that this book has is that it doesn't generally present its evidence in the best way possible being overly repetitious in places and being a bit too informal in others. Overall 1421 is an interesting book that does present many new questions for historians on the accepted view of the voyages discovery but it does require more research.

Lovely PR hype - but sadly fairly rubbish history, 19 Jun 2008
You'd hope for more from a former Royal Navy commander, but sadly while his publicity machine is first rate, his history is anything but.

It would be lovely to turn what we know about naval history on its head and say that the Chinese Admiral Zheng He conclusively 'discovered' America or Australia long before any European navigators/explorers.

Unfortunately, this book falls into the category of what publishers call "wa-wa" history. In other words, it ain't true - and the historical reseach is shoddy.

The publishers know it's rubbish. We the public know it's rubbish, but we buy it anyway. And so they publish, because they know we'll buy it and they'll make money. In other words we get the books we deserve. We should be reading decent, reseach-based histories - but we find them rather dull so we don't....

Despite the welter of 5 and 4 star reviews this book has garnered on Amazon, it is important - before you buy it - to note one important fact.

Not ONE single naval historian has given any credence to these claims. Not any European - nor any Chinese - historian. In fact, they all say that the evidence is not there.

While other readers seem to like this book, I have to say that having read other books on global trade and sea voyages in the pre-modern era, I found Menzies style very confusing and it was very difficult to follow his train of thought and how he was using evidence to support his conclusions

Astonishingly, Menzies seems to have ignored two key pieces of Chinese evidence for Zheng He's voyages which list the countries he visited - and don't mention anything that could be America.

In fact Menzies does not read Chinese and there are no direct quotes from any articles or studies written in Chinese. Which is pretty gob-smacking when you think the book is about a Chinese Admiral!

The book may be entertaining, and I am sure Gavin Menzies is a nice bloke etc etc. But that ain't enough. For me his book was full of circular reasoning, speculation, distorted sources and slapdash research.

Or as has already been said - this book may well prove to be the Piltdown Man of literature and should only be classified as fiction.

You may think this is a case of the little man, the amateur, beating the massed hords of the professionals. That is always a very beguiling image, but it's the wrong one to picture.

This book is a triumph for publishing hype and muddled thinking and writing. For that reason we should give it a wide berth. Unless of course you actually like your history as fiction. In which case, be my guest. However, you have been warned....

Mind boggling pseudo-history, 25 May 2008
His far-fetched theories, while very interesting, have no scientific basis.
Any curious fact stated in the book that was checked by a (reputable) scientists was found false.
Read the well researched and scientifically sound "When China Ruled the Seas" by Louise Levathes, or check the Internet sites at & to understand the hoax...

A bold book, 19 Dec 2008
John Man gave himself a big challenge ... to write a book that goes beyond a mere biography. To write a book that dares to go beyond all the written sources to explore not just what Genghis Khan did, but who really was Genghis Khan. It allows a glimpse of the great man's soul.

I admire Man for taking on the challenge. To do it he has collaborated extensively with the leading Mongolian and international scholars. Most importantly he has gone beyond this mere "knowledge" and built on it by visiting the key locations in Genghis' life, to get a feel for what this or that battle was like, what the childhood was like, and as a result he paints a more personal story than any other biography of Temujin.

Man makes more than a few deductions about what Temujin / Genghis was thinking at various times, but he is very good at walking the reader thru the process of his deductions. Its a brave thing to do and I award the book 4 stars for the authors tenacity and bravery in piecing together the likely thoughts of a man who lived 800 years ago.

A fifth star comes for how readable Man has made his book. It reads well and makes the book compelling.

*****



Enthusiastic but patchy, 08 Jul 2008
Genghis Khan is full of the author's enthusiasm for Mongol culture and their history, and this is charming for the most part. The period that this book deals with is fascinating, and the book itself describes engagingly the clash of urban and nomadic cultures, the intertwining of Mongolia's fate in China and how Genghis Khan may have lived and died. Much is based on conjecture; this is clearly necessary as there is only one limited source, The Secret History, from around the time. This is clearly explained in the text and where this and other sources are questionable the reader is informed and the evidence appears to be dealt with an appropriate degree of scepticism.
The lack of evidence becomes more troublesome when the author feels the need to introduce his travels to flesh out the content. As suggested in other reviews, it feels like space filler and adds very little to the book, making you wish you could hit fast forward on these sections.
Another slight annoyance is the apologist theme throughout - whenever the Mongols commit an atrocity, it is not for sadism or xenophobia's sake but as a 'sign for others' or as justifiable vengeance. Given the number of murders - particularly of non-combatants - the Mongols felt they had to commit to peoples of various backgrounds, either word didn't get around or this strategy didn't work that well.
Genghis Khan is on the whole an informative read, but I would not have resented a shorter book. I would give it three stars but I'm not sure if anyone has made a better book on this subject.

Definitive, 11 Jun 2008
If you want to know about Mr Khan, this is the book. John Man has done a brilliant job in bringing this incredible man to life. Other reviewers have explained the book well. If you are interested in Ghengis, whatever your moral compass, this is the book you need to read. Briliant.

Interesting, but too much travelogue, 19 Mar 2008
By some estimates, Genghis Khan managed to rid the world of one-tenth of its contemporary population, which means that his credentials in the noble art of mass murder are nearly unequalled. John Man gives us a more balanced picture. But beware! This is John Man, The Fan Of Khan, and he therefore tends to accentuate the positive of ol' G.K., such as it is. Certainly Genghis's empire was impressive, considering that it was all done on horseback. However, given that the Mongols were nomadic, with nothing but contempt for sedentary peoples, who merited only robbing, looting, raping and massacring, it was never going to last. Mr. Man brings the story down to the present day, with a number of countries seeking to claim the legacy of Genghis.

And this, for me, is where the problems with this book start. Mr. Man seeks out the places with which Genghis was associated - where he was born and where he possibly died. This I found interesting - up to a point. But for me, there was much too much of it and in too much detail, and after a while I found myself speeding up to get through it quicker. A shorter version of the literary traveller's tales would have made for a much better book.

The interesting and informative story of a great man, 11 Oct 2006
Genghis Khan rose from obscurity to command of the Mongol tribes and upon his death ruled one of the largest empires the world had ever seen, an empire his descendents expanded until it stretched from Korea to Hungary. This book attempts to shed some light on the life and death of Genghis Khan, sifting fact from legend and shows his place in the hearts and minds of modern Mongolian and Chinese people.

This book follows in the footsteps of the great conquer from his birth to his death. Using historical sources as well as more modern research and interspaced with tales from his own journeys around Asia, John Man weaves an interesting and enjoyable story that is a must read for anyone interested in Far Eastern history. Unlike many people I have never seen Genghis Khan as a villain but as one of the greatest men in history and I hope that this book goes some way to redress the balance oh his reputation.

Tedious and unconvincing, 20 Dec 2008
Fascinating story, but it rapidly became clear as I worked through the book that Menzies is prepared to accept pretty much anything anyone tells him as "evidence". The story starts with the well documented and widely accepted story of Zheng He and the treasure fleets of the early Ming dynasty. These were remarkable vessels and their story, and the large amount of evidence behind it, is ably covered in "When China ruled the seas" by Louise Levathes. The difference between the two authors is that Levathes (mostly) restricts herself to what the evidence supports, while Menzies is happy to accept the flimsiest of conjectures as proof positive.

The actual evidence for Chinese voyages runs out at the eastern coast of Africa and on the Australian coast. But Menzies quite happily extrapolates beyond this. Evidence of Chinese genes and customs in parts of the US? Must have been the treasure fleet (never mind that there have been plenty of other historical contacts). A map purportedly showing the northern coast of Eurasia before it was charted by the Russians? Treasure fleet must have dunnit. A natural rock formation in the Bahamas bearing some visual resemblance to a built structure. Obviously the Chinese made it - based on nothing other than Menzies' claim that the formation has dimensions similar to the largest ships in the fleet.

Menzies is either extremely gullible, or he's taking his audience for a ride on the scale of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail". I wouldn't mind if it were an exhilarating ride, but it's rather long and tedious and just no fun at all. If you want alternative history, can I suggest Harry Turtledove or Michael Moorcock as rather more entertaining?


Risible, flea-brained stupidity, 07 Sep 2008
There is such a thing as a work of fantasy. This is book is just that. No evidence whatsoever. No proof. No circumstantial evidence. Pure tosh from start to finish. This is no more history than books on Atlantis are history.
Do youselves a favour - if Sino-European history interests you, buy a good, well-respected, well-researched work on the subject. Leave foolishness like this to the idiots.

An interesting read, 30 Aug 2008
The basic premise of this book is that prior to the European voyages of discovery a massive fleet of ships left China and ended up circumnavigating the globe and on the way discovered North and South America, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand and Greenland. The author, Gavin Menzies, is a former Royal Navy submarine commander and as such much of his evidence is based on his knowledge of currents and wind direction when compared to maps that predate the voyages of Columbus. He goes on to use a number of other sources of evidence to back up his case including, among other things, the presence of mysterious wrecks scattered the globe, the presence of animals and plants outside their native lands before Europeans reached them and the diaries of the first European explorers themselves.

While much of the evidence presented in this book is thought provoking and definitely worthy of further study there are many pieces that are open to other interpretation and some that can only be described as circumstantial. I feel some of the problem that this book has is that it doesn't generally present its evidence in the best way possible being overly repetitious in places and being a bit too informal in others. Overall 1421 is an interesting book that does present many new questions for historians on the accepted view of the voyages discovery but it does require more research.

Lovely PR hype - but sadly fairly rubbish history, 19 Jun 2008
You'd hope for more from a former Royal Navy commander, but sadly while his publicity machine is first rate, his history is anything but.

It would be lovely to turn what we know about naval history on its head and say that the Chinese Admiral Zheng He conclusively 'discovered' America or Australia long before any European navigators/explorers.

Unfortunately, this book falls into the category of what publishers call "wa-wa" history. In other words, it ain't true - and the historical reseach is shoddy.

The publishers know it's rubbish. We the public know it's rubbish, but we buy it anyway. And so they publish, because they know we'll buy it and they'll make money. In other words we get the books we deserve. We should be reading decent, reseach-based histories - but we find them rather dull so we don't....

Despite the welter of 5 and 4 star reviews this book has garnered on Amazon, it is important - before you buy it - to note one important fact.

Not ONE single naval historian has given any credence to these claims. Not any European - nor any Chinese - historian. In fact, they all say that the evidence is not there.

While other readers seem to like this book, I have to say that having read other books on global trade and sea voyages in the pre-modern era, I found Menzies style very confusing and it was very difficult to follow his train of thought and how he was using evidence to support his conclusions

Astonishingly, Menzies seems to have ignored two key pieces of Chinese evidence for Zheng He's voyages which list the countries he visited - and don't mention anything that could be America.

In fact Menzies does not read Chinese and there are no direct quotes from any articles or studies written in Chinese. Which is pretty gob-smacking when you think the book is about a Chinese Admiral!

The book may be entertaining, and I am sure Gavin Menzies is a nice bloke etc etc. But that ain't enough. For me his book was full of circular reasoning, speculation, distorted sources and slapdash research.

Or as has already been said - this book may well prove to be the Piltdown Man of literature and should only be classified as fiction.

You may think this is a case of the little man, the amateur, beating the massed hords of the professionals. That is always a very beguiling image, but it's the wrong one to picture.

This book is a triumph for publishing hype and muddled thinking and writing. For that reason we should give it a wide berth. Unless of course you actually like your history as fiction. In which case, be my guest. However, you have been warned....

Mind boggling pseudo-history, 25 May 2008
His far-fetched theories, while very interesting, have no scientific basis.
Any curious fact stated in the book that was checked by a (reputable) scientists was found false.
Read the well researched and scientifically sound "When China Ruled the Seas" by Louise Levathes, or check the Internet sites at & to understand the hoax...

A bold book, 19 Dec 2008
John Man gave himself a big challenge ... to write a book that goes beyond a mere biography. To write a book that dares to go beyond all the written sources to explore not just what Genghis Khan did, but who really was Genghis Khan. It allows a glimpse of the great man's soul.

I admire Man for taking on the challenge. To do it he has collaborated extensively with the leading Mongolian and international scholars. Most importantly he has gone beyond this mere "knowledge" and built on it by visiting the key locations in Genghis' life, to get a feel for what this or that battle was like, what the childhood was like, and as a result he paints a more personal story than any other biography of Temujin.

Man makes more than a few deductions about what Temujin / Genghis was thinking at various times, but he is very good at walking the reader thru the process of his deductions. Its a brave thing to do and I award the book 4 stars for the authors tenacity and bravery in piecing together the likely thoughts of a man who lived 800 years ago.

A fifth star comes for how readable Man has made his book. It reads well and makes the book compelling.

*****



Enthusiastic but patchy, 08 Jul 2008
Genghis Khan is full of the author's enthusiasm for Mongol culture and their history, and this is charming for the most part. The period that this book deals with is fascinating, and the book itself describes engagingly the clash of urban and nomadic cultures, the intertwining of Mongolia's fate in China and how Genghis Khan may have lived and died. Much is based on conjecture; this is clearly necessary as there is only one limited source, The Secret History, from around the time. This is clearly explained in the text and where this and other sources are questionable the reader is informed and the evidence appears to be dealt with an appropriate degree of scepticism.
The lack of evidence becomes more troublesome when the author feels the need to introduce his travels to flesh out the content. As suggested in other reviews, it feels like space filler and adds very little to the book, making you wish you could hit fast forward on these sections.
Another slight annoyance is the apologist theme throughout - whenever the Mongols commit an atrocity, it is not for sadism or xenophobia's sake but as a 'sign for others' or as justifiable vengeance. Given the number of murders - particularly of non-combatants - the Mongols felt they had to commit to peoples of various backgrounds, either word didn't get around or this strategy didn't work that well.
Genghis Khan is on the whole an informative read, but I would not have resented a shorter book. I would give it three stars but I'm not sure if anyone has made a better book on this subject.

Definitive, 11 Jun 2008
If you want to know about Mr Khan, this is the book. John Man has done a brilliant job in bringing this incredible man to life. Other reviewers have explained the book well. If you are interested in Ghengis, whatever your moral compass, this is the book you need to read. Briliant.

Interesting, but too much travelogue, 19 Mar 2008
By some estimates, Genghis Khan managed to rid the world of one-tenth of its contemporary population, which means that his credentials in the noble art of mass murder are nearly unequalled. John Man gives us a more balanced picture. But beware! This is John Man, The Fan Of Khan, and he therefore tends to accentuate the positive of ol' G.K., such as it is. Certainly Genghis's empire was impressive, considering that it was all done on horseback. However, given that the Mongols were nomadic, with nothing but contempt for sedentary peoples, who merited only robbing, looting, raping and massacring, it was never going to last. Mr. Man brings the story down to the present day, with a number of countries seeking to claim the legacy of Genghis.

And this, for me, is where the problems with this book start. Mr. Man seeks out the places with which Genghis was associated - where he was born and where he possibly died. This I found interesting - up to a point. But for me, there was much too much of it and in too much detail, and after a while I found myself speeding up to get through it quicker. A shorter version of the literary traveller's tales would have made for a much better book.

The interesting and informative story of a great man, 11 Oct 2006
Genghis Khan rose from obscurity to command of the Mongol tribes and upon his death ruled one of the largest empires the world had ever seen, an empire his descendents expanded until it stretched from Korea to Hungary. This book attempts to shed some light on the life and death of Genghis Khan, sifting fact from legend and shows his place in the hearts and minds of modern Mongolian and Chinese people.

This book follows in the footsteps of the great conquer from his birth to his death. Using historical sources as well as more modern research and interspaced with tales from his own journeys around Asia, John Man weaves an interesting and enjoyable story that is a must read for anyone interested in Far Eastern history. Unlike many people I have never seen Genghis Khan as a villain but as one of the greatest men in history and I hope that this book goes some way to redress the balance oh his reputation.


Achieved its objective!, 18 Nov 2008
As the title clearly indicates, this book is an attempt to depict the experience of the crusades through Arab eyes; in my opinion, it succeeded.

Until I read this title, my two favourite works concerning the crusades were 'The first crusade' by Thomas Asbridge and 'The sword and the scimitar' by Ernle Bradford. This book joins that short list.

One of the many bonuses to this title was that it filled a lot of the gaps in the aftermath of July 1099, such as the attempts by the Fatimids to reconquer Jerusalem, how the crusaders conquered Tripoli, Acre, the impact of the Mongols and the Mamluks on Arab civilisation. You come across interesting characters including Saladin, Zangi, Nur-Al-Din, Baybars, Qutuz, to name a few.

If I have any criticism, it is that some bits of information should not be taken at face value. For instance, the author asserts that Richard the Lionheart had Conrad of Montferrat killed by the Assassins - this is speculation at best.

I really enjoyed reading this and have certainly developed a more informed view of the crusades.

Interesting book, 20 Oct 2008
Amin Maalouf is a good French-Lebanese writer, and this, a translation from the original French, reads very well.

The occasional reviewer who says that it is one-sided is a bit unfair. It is a history of the Crusades from one point of view, as Maalouf says, and as the title makes clear. In writing the book, he says in the introduction, he has deliberately relied almost exclusively on contemporary Arabic sources. Even so, his account is fairly even-handed in that respect. Sometimes he does write as if he is cheering and jeering at the appropriate places in the story, but all even-handed historians, such as Runciman, make it clear that the Crusaders were on the whole a pretty barbaric bunch. Also although Maalouf describes Crusader-Muslim alliances as "bizarre", he makes it clear that as the Crusader kingdoms become stable, they played a role that often cut across religious lines, and few leaders on either side were consistent allies to their co-religionists, nor consistent enemies to those of another faith.

Also, at the end, after detailing the huge amount that the Europeans learnt in science, technology, art, culture, medicine and so on from the Muslim world, he then considers a few things that the Muslim world even at the time could have learnt from the otherwise less advanced west, if they had wished to.

However, the strength of the book doesn't come from its even-handedness. A good history book can be as biased as the writer wants it to be in tone, so long as it is factually accurate. Maalouf's account substantially agrees with (for example) Runciman's history, but fills it out by explaining the debates, the conflicts and the plans that the Muslims had in response to the invasion.

The single perspective of the narrative would be a weakness if someone were to take this as the last word, or the most complete account of the Crusades. At times it reads almost like Hamlet without the prince, as the driving force of the narrative, necessarily, is the Crusaders themselves. Maalouf's account of them is very thin, especially when it comes to explaining their motivations, the plea for help of the Byzantine emperor, the preaching of Peter the Hermit, the mass hysteria, the hopes and the fantasies and so on. This is not really a weakness of the book, but just something you should bear in mind. Whatever the grounds for your interest in the Crusades, you would need to read an account of how it all came about. Runciman's history is the standard work, and still well regarded. Maalouf however, will add much vital information that Runciman doesn't cover, however limited Maalouf's book would be considered in itself.

The great strengths of Maalouf's book come when he is explaining the political and social context of the Muslim world at the time. His explanation of the divisions between Turkish military commander and Arab civilian, burgher and villager, qadi and officer, Sunni and Shia gives you a deeper understanding of the Crusades than you would have if you only read other sources. He also explains the Assassins in a way that treats them not as an exotic curiosity, but an important social movement.

This book will enrich whatever else you have read about the Crusades. Although many of the original Arabic texts have now been translated, his overview and narrative is based on a wide variety of Arabic sources, and gives a broad understanding of what the Muslims thought of the event, and how they reacted to it.


Overated pseudo-history, 04 May 2008
This book highlights the dangers inherent in journalists writing history. The author has a lively style and the book is ceratinly readable (one previous reviewer even fooled into thinking it's a novel!) but it is very poor as history. It lacks objectivity and although presents us with a very interesting account of events from the Arab point of view and is critical of the Muslim states and their inability to work together, displays the author's ignorance (or deliberate lack of interest in) their opponents. Western authors have been writing more balanced views of the religious wars in the middle east for some time as any serious student of mediaeval history is well aware and this books pretensions at presenting 'the other side' is disingenuous. To sum up, it reminded me of a couple of books I read many years ago about events on the Russian front in 1943 and 44, which were written by Russian authors writing under communist rule, - go figure!

Not the best account!, 06 Sep 2007
I have to disagree with the other reviewers. The idea of the book is a very good one. We're used to reading about the crusades from the western perspective. Even the most objective account will tend to examine the motivations/ideas of the crusaders rather than the Arabs. So Ma'alouf's book is needed. However, it is, academically speaking, a bit slim. In my opinion this book is NOT well researched; however, even though it does so poorly, it touches on an understudied side of the crusades.

To use a rather odd analogy: if this was a movie I'd tell you to watch it on a plane or on TV but not to buy it!

Well researched, Acessible, Intriguing, 19 Jun 2007
I'm not much of a history buff. but this book is written in a clear accessible style. Events are detailed and accurate, and the journey through time is eyeopening. Well written, read this book!

Tedious and unconvincing, 20 Dec 2008
Fascinating story, but it rapidly became clear as I worked through the book that Menzies is prepared to accept pretty much anything anyone tells him as "evidence". The story starts with the well documented and widely accepted story of Zheng He and the treasure fleets of the early Ming dynasty. These were remarkable vessels and their story, and the large amount of evidence behind it, is ably covered in "When China ruled the seas" by Louise Levathes. The difference between the two authors is that Levathes (mostly) restricts herself to what the evidence supports, while Menzies is happy to accept the flimsiest of conjectures as proof positive.

The actual evidence for Chinese voyages runs out at the eastern coast of Africa and on the Australian coast. But Menzies quite happily extrapolates beyond this. Evidence of Chinese genes and customs in parts of the US? Must have been the treasure fleet (never mind that there have been plenty of other historical contacts). A map purportedly showing the northern coast of Eurasia before it was charted by the Russians? Treasure fleet must have dunnit. A natural rock formation in the Bahamas bearing some visual resemblance to a built structure. Obviously the Chinese made it - based on nothing other than Menzies' claim that the formation has dimensions similar to the largest ships in the fleet.

Menzies is either extremely gullible, or he's taking his audience for a ride on the scale of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail". I wouldn't mind if it were an exhilarating ride, but it's rather long and tedious and just no fun at all. If you want alternative history, can I suggest Harry Turtledove or Michael Moorcock as rather more entertaining?


Risible, flea-brained stupidity, 07 Sep 2008
There is such a thing as a work of fantasy. This is book is just that. No evidence whatsoever. No proof. No circumstantial evidence. Pure tosh from start to finish. This is no more history than books on Atlantis are history.
Do youselves a favour - if Sino-European history interests you, buy a good, well-respected, well-researched work on the subject. Leave foolishness like this to the idiots.

An interesting read, 30 Aug 2008
The basic premise of this book is that prior to the European voyages of discovery a massive fleet of ships left China and ended up circumnavigating the globe and on the way discovered North and South America, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand and Greenland. The author, Gavin Menzies, is a former Royal Navy submarine commander and as such much of his evidence is based on his knowledge of currents and wind direction when compared to maps that predate the voyages of Columbus. He goes on to use a number of other sources of evidence to back up his case including, among other things, the presence of mysterious wrecks scattered the globe, the presence of animals and plants outside their native lands before Europeans reached them and the diaries of the first European explorers themselves.

While much of the evidence presented in this book is thought provoking and definitely worthy of further study there are many pieces that are open to other interpretation and some that can only be described as circumstantial. I feel some of the problem that this book has is that it doesn't generally present its evidence in the best way possible being overly repetitious in places and being a bit too informal in others. Overall 1421 is an interesting book that does present many new questions for historians on the accepted view of the voyages discovery but it does require more research.

Lovely PR hype - but sadly fairly rubbish history, 19 Jun 2008
You'd hope for more from a former Royal Navy commander, but sadly while his publicity machine is first rate, his history is anything but.

It would be lovely to turn what we know about naval history on its head and say that the Chinese Admiral Zheng He conclusively 'discovered' America or Australia long before any European navigators/explorers.

Unfortunately, this book falls into the category of what publishers call "wa-wa" history. In other words, it ain't true - and the historical reseach is shoddy.

The publishers know it's rubbish. We the public know it's rubbish, but we buy it anyway. And so they publish, because they know we'll buy it and they'll make money. In other words we get the books we deserve. We should be reading decent, reseach-based histories - but we find them rather dull so we don't....

Despite the welter of 5 and 4 star reviews this book has garnered on Amazon, it is important - before you buy it - to note one important fact.

Not ONE single naval historian has given any credence to these claims. Not any European - nor any Chinese - historian. In fact, they all say that the evidence is not there.

While other readers seem to like this book, I have to say that having read other books on global trade and sea voyages in the pre-modern era, I found Menzies style very confusing and it was very difficult to follow his train of thought and how he was using evidence to support his conclusions

Astonishingly, Menzies seems to have ignored two key pieces of Chinese evidence for Zheng He's voyages which list the countries he visited - and don't mention anything that could be America.

In fact Menzies does not read Chinese and there are no direct quotes from any articles or studies written in Chinese. Which is pretty gob-smacking when you think the book is about a Chinese Admiral!

The book may be entertaining, and I am sure Gavin Menzies is a nice bloke etc etc. But that ain't enough. For me his book was full of circular reasoning, speculation, distorted sources and slapdash research.

Or as has already been said - this book may well prove to be the Piltdown Man of literature and should only be classified as fiction.

You may think this is a case of the little man, the amateur, beating the massed hords of the professionals. That is always a very beguiling image, but it's the wrong one to picture.

This book is a triumph for publishing hype and muddled thinking and writing. For that reason we should give it a wide berth. Unless of course you actually like your history as fiction. In which case, be my guest. However, you have been warned....

Mind boggling pseudo-history, 25 May 2008
His far-fetched theories, while very interesting, have no scientific basis.
Any curious fact stated in the book that was checked by a (reputable) scientists was found false.
Read the well researched and scientifically sound "When China Ruled the Seas" by Louise Levathes, or check the Internet sites at & to understand the hoax...

A bold book, 19 Dec 2008
John Man gave himself a big challenge ... to write a book that goes beyond a mere biography. To write a book that dares to go beyond all the written sources to explore not just what Genghis Khan did, but who really was Genghis Khan. It allows a glimpse of the great man's soul.

I admire Man for taking on the challenge. To do it he has collaborated extensively with the leading Mongolian and international scholars. Most importantly he has gone beyond this mere "knowledge" and built on it by visiting the key locations in Genghis' life, to get a feel for what this or that battle was like, what the childhood was like, and as a result he paints a more personal story than any other biography of Temujin.

Man makes more than a few deductions about what Temujin / Genghis was thinking at various times, but he is very good at walking the reader thru the process of his deductions. Its a brave thing to do and I award the book 4 stars for the authors tenacity and bravery in piecing together the likely thoughts of a man who lived 800 years ago.

A fifth star comes for how readable Man has made his book. It reads well and makes the book compelling.

*****



Enthusiastic but patchy, 08 Jul 2008
Genghis Khan is full of the author's enthusiasm for Mongol culture and their history, and this is charming for the most part. The period that this book deals with is fascinating, and the book itself describes engagingly the clash of urban and nomadic cultures, the intertwining of Mongolia's fate in China and how Genghis Khan may have lived and died. Much is based on conjecture; this is clearly necessary as there is only one limited source, The Secret History, from around the time. This is clearly explained in the text and where this and other sources are questionable the reader is informed and the evidence appears to be dealt with an appropriate degree of scepticism.
The lack of evidence becomes more troublesome when the author feels the need to introduce his travels to flesh out the content. As suggested in other reviews, it feels like space filler and adds very little to the book, making you wish you could hit fast forward on these sections.
Another slight annoyance is the apologist theme throughout - whenever the Mongols commit an atrocity, it is not for sadism or xenophobia's sake but as a 'sign for others' or as justifiable vengeance. Given the number of murders - particularly of non-combatants - the Mongols felt they had to commit to peoples of various backgrounds, either word didn't get around or this strategy didn't work that well.
Genghis Khan is on the whole an informative read, but I would not have resented a shorter book. I would give it three stars but I'm not sure if anyone has made a better book on this subject.

Definitive, 11 Jun 2008
If you want to know about Mr Khan, this is the book. John Man has done a brilliant job in bringing this incredible man to life. Other reviewers have explained the book well. If you are interested in Ghengis, whatever your moral compass, this is the book you need to read. Briliant.

Interesting, but too much travelogue, 19 Mar 2008
By some estimates, Genghis Khan managed to rid the world of one-tenth of its contemporary population, which means that his credentials in the noble art of mass murder are nearly unequalled. John Man gives us a more balanced picture. But beware! This is John Man, The Fan Of Khan, and he therefore tends to accentuate the positive of ol' G.K., such as it is. Certainly Genghis's empire was impressive, considering that it was all done on horseback. However, given that the Mongols were nomadic, with nothing but contempt for sedentary peoples, who merited only robbing, looting, raping and massacring, it was never going to last. Mr. Man brings the story down to the present day, with a number of countries seeking to claim the legacy of Genghis.

And this, for me, is where the problems with this book start. Mr. Man seeks out the places with which Genghis was associated - where he was born and where he possibly died. This I found interesting - up to a point. But for me, there was much too much of it and in too much detail, and after a while I found myself speeding up to get through it quicker. A shorter version of the literary traveller's tales would have made for a much better book.

The interesting and informative story of a great man, 11 Oct 2006
Genghis Khan rose from obscurity to command of the Mongol tribes and upon his death ruled one of the largest empires the world had ever seen, an empire his descendents expanded until it stretched from Korea to Hungary. This book attempts to shed some light on the life and death of Genghis Khan, sifting fact from legend and shows his place in the hearts and minds of modern Mongolian and Chinese people.

This book follows in the footsteps of the great conquer from his birth to his death. Using historical sources as well as more modern research and interspaced with tales from his own journeys around Asia, John Man weaves an interesting and enjoyable story that is a must read for anyone interested in Far Eastern history. Unlike many people I have never seen Genghis Khan as a villain but as one of the greatest men in history and I hope that this book goes some way to redress the balance oh his reputation.


Achieved its objective!, 18 Nov 2008
As the title clearly indicates, this book is an attempt to depict the experience of the crusades through Arab eyes; in my opinion, it succeeded.

Until I read this title, my two favourite works concerning the crusades were 'The first crusade' by Thomas Asbridge and 'The sword and the scimitar' by Ernle Bradford. This book joins that short list.

One of the many bonuses to this title was that it filled a lot of the gaps in the aftermath of July 1099, such as the attempts by the Fatimids to reconquer Jerusalem, how the crusaders conquered Tripoli, Acre, the impact of the Mongols and the Mamluks on Arab civilisation. You come across interesting characters including Saladin, Zangi, Nur-Al-Din, Baybars, Qutuz, to name a few.

If I have any criticism, it is that some bits of information should not be taken at face value. For instance, the author asserts that Richard the Lionheart had Conrad of Montferrat killed by the Assassins - this is speculation at best.

I really enjoyed reading this and have certainly developed a more informed view of the crusades.

Interesting book, 20 Oct 2008
Amin Maalouf is a good French-Lebanese writer, and this, a translation from the original French, reads very well.

The occasional reviewer who says that it is one-sided is a bit unfair. It is a history of the Crusades from one point of view, as Maalouf says, and as the title makes clear. In writing the book, he says in the introduction, he has deliberately relied almost exclusively on contemporary Arabic sources. Even so, his account is fairly even-handed in that respect. Sometimes he does write as if he is cheering and jeering at the appropriate places in the story, but all even-handed historians, such as Runciman, make it clear that the Crusaders were on the whole a pretty barbaric bunch. Also although Maalouf describes Crusader-Muslim alliances as "bizarre", he makes it clear that as the Crusader kingdoms become stable, they played a role that often cut across religious lines, and few leaders on either side were consistent allies to their co-religionists, nor consistent enemies to those of another faith.

Also, at the end, after detailing the huge amount that the Europeans learnt in science, technology, art, culture, medicine and so on from the Muslim world, he then considers a few things that the Muslim world even at the time could have learnt from the otherwise less advanced west, if they had wished to.

However, the strength of the book doesn't come from its even-handedness. A good history book can be as biased as the writer wants it to be in tone, so long as it is factually accurate. Maalouf's account substantially agrees with (for example) Runciman's history, but fills it out by explaining the debates, the conflicts and the plans that the Muslims had in response to the invasion.

The single perspective of the narrative would be a weakness if someone were to take this as the last word, or the most complete account of the Crusades. At times it reads almost like Hamlet without the prince, as the driving force of the narrative, necessarily, is the Crusaders themselves. Maalouf's account of them is very thin, especially when it comes to explaining their motivations, the plea for help of the Byzantine emperor, the preaching of Peter the Hermit, the mass hysteria, the hopes and the fantasies and so on. This is not really a weakness of the book, but just something you should bear in mind. Whatever the grounds for your interest in the Crusades, you would need to read an account of how it all came about. Runciman's history is the standard work, and still well regarded. Maalouf however, will add much vital information that Runciman doesn't cover, however limited Maalouf's book would be considered in itself.

The great strengths of Maalouf's book come when he is explaining the political and social context of the Muslim world at the time. His explanation of the divisions between Turkish military commander and Arab civilian, burgher and villager, qadi and officer, Sunni and Shia gives you a deeper understanding of the Crusades than you would have if you only read other sources. He also explains the Assassins in a way that treats them not as an exotic curiosity, but an important social movement.

This book will enrich whatever else you have read about the Crusades. Although many of the original Arabic texts have now been translated, his overview and narrative is based on a wide variety of Arabic sources, and gives a broad understanding of what the Muslims thought of the event, and how they reacted to it.


Overated pseudo-history, 04 May 2008
This book highlights the dangers inherent in journalists writing history. The author has a lively style and the book is ceratinly readable (one previous reviewer even fooled into thinking it's a novel!) but it is very poor as history. It lacks objectivity and although presents us with a very interesting account of events from the Arab point of view and is critical of the Muslim states and their inability to work together, displays the author's ignorance (or deliberate lack of interest in) their opponents. Western authors have been writing more balanced views of the religious wars in the middle east for some time as any serious student of mediaeval history is well aware and this books pretensions at presenting 'the other side' is disingenuous. To sum up, it reminded me of a couple of books I read many years ago about events on the Russian front in 1943 and 44, which were written by Russian authors writing under communist rule, - go figure!

Not the best account!, 06 Sep 2007
I have to disagree with the other reviewers. The idea of the book is a very good one. We're used to reading about the crusades from the western perspective. Even the most objective account will tend to examine the motivations/ideas of the crusaders rather than the Arabs. So Ma'alouf's book is needed. However, it is, academically speaking, a bit slim. In my opinion this book is NOT well researched; however, even though it does so poorly, it touches on an understudied side of the crusades.

To use a rather odd analogy: if this was a movie I'd tell you to watch it on a plane or on TV but not to buy it!

Well researched, Acessible, Intriguing, 19 Jun 2007
I'm not much of a history buff. but this book is written in a clear accessible style. Events are detailed and accurate, and the journey through time is eyeopening. Well written, read this book!

Revisionist History at its finest, 19 Dec 2008
A revision of history with respect to Genghis Khan and the enmpire he created has been long overdue. For 800 years we have a history of the Mongols being sourced almost exclusivly from the writings of the Chinese, Russians and Persians ... all people conquered by the mongols. Its inevitable that whoever writes history, writes it according to their prevailing biases. And its inevitable that the history of the mongols as written by the Chinese, Persians and Russians in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries now needs serious revision.

This book provides that revision and joins the growing movement to re-assess "the daddy" of the Mongol nation, and the worlds largest land empire. What comes out is a bright and positive view of the contributions of Genghis Khan and the empire he founded.

Genghis Kahn, a Revelation, 19 Dec 2008
Genghis Kahn and the Making of the Modern World is the best book that I have ever read in any genre. It reads like a good biographical novel, but informs like a 21st `Century anthropological textbook. It reveals truths that far exceed what conventional editors would allow in fiction. A character study, knowledge of his birthplace, kinship patterns combine with archeological studies to reveal Genghis Kahn's complex personality, a personality that refutes stereotypes found in centuries of conventional history. For example, Genghis Kahn freed Mongolians from slavery and granted religious freedom. The book includes interesting details about how competent female administrators ran an empire left by the most successful conqueror the planet has ever produced. The introduction introduces the sources of evidence by which the "how quaint the natives" conclusions that characterized colonial anthropology are refuted by more informed multidisciplinary methods.

I will make my strongest recommendation by sending my son, a graduate student in archeology, a copy of Weatherford's Genghis Khan as a birthday present.


Fantastic book!, 21 May 2008
This is a fantastic book, very well written, the more I read the more I couldn't put it down!!
Incredible how advanced Genghis Kahn ideas were, especially about religion.
Do yourself a favour and read this book!



Read this, and Change your world, 17 Aug 2007
This is not just a history, it is re-invention of our world. No one has told Genghis Khan 's story as effectively. Texts by other
historians like Paul Ratchnevsky may consult more primary sources [JW bases his work on the Secret History of the Mongols, Juvayni, and Rashid-ad-Din, Ratchnevsky consults some additional Chinese sources like the Shenwu qinzheng lu]. Texts such as Saunders may be more scholarly and are more nuanced in their conclusions, but this footnote-free story (notes are indexed to sentences only at the end) is eminently readable, and like Timothy May has said in a review, it is the kind of writing that, unlike "dusty monographs", can fire one's "love for history".

Writing with rare lyrical sensitivity, Weatherford brings across a dramatic narrative of the military conquests. The first part deals with Genghis Khan consolidating the tribes of Mongolia (Chapters 2-3). Most of the book (Chapters 4-8), deals with world conquest. Genghis Khan launched his series of conquests when in his late 40s, and within fifteen years (1212 to his death in 1227), he had conquered four times the territory of the Roman or Macedonian empires at their peak; after his death, it would be grow half as much larger.

However, the most interesting aspect of the book is its discussion of the impact of this large trade-friendly empire, lasting over 200 years, may have had (Chapter 9). Printing, firearms, the use of the compass in navigation, bowed instruments such as the violin, all came to Europe through Mongol interactions. Furthermore, processes such as codification of laws, lightning mobility in war (the inspiration for Nazi "blitzkrieg"), religious freedom, and participative government, all taken for granted today, were practiced in the Mongol Empire and may have influenced European thinking during the Renaissance that immediately followed the breakup of the empire.

Maybe he over-dramatizes things when saying: "Under the widespread influences from the paper and printing, gunpowder and firearms, and the spread of the navigational compass and other maritime equipment, Europeans experienced a Renaissance, literally a rebirth, but it was not the ancient world of Greece or Rome being reborn. It was the Mongol Empire, picked up, transferred, and adapted by the Europeans to their own needs and culture." But on the whole he presents overwhelming evidence of our debt to the Mongols, an aspect that was covered up during the Age of Enlightenment (Chapter 10 deals with this historiographical process).

I found the book extremely thought-provoking; it led me to read Ratchnevsky and I am now looking through Saunders. I also went to several online sources simply to verify the claims he makes; I found most of them well-corroborated. Reading this book was absolutely eye-opening. It has completely changed my world view.

Very Good, 12 Apr 2007
This book offers a well laid out history that is both easy to follow and an interesting read. The description of the life and times of Genghis Khan are well complimented by the concluding chapters covering Genghis Khan's impact; after death and importantly, today.

Tedious and unconvincing, 20 Dec 2008
Fascinating story, but it rapidly became clear as I worked through the book that Menzies is prepared to accept pretty much anything anyone tells him as "evidence". The story starts with the well documented and widely accepted story of Zheng He and the treasure fleets of the early Ming dynasty. These were remarkable vessels and their story, and the large amount of evidence behind it, is ably covered in "When China ruled the seas" by Louise Levathes. The difference between the two authors is that Levathes (mostly) restricts herself to what the evidence supports, while Menzies is happy to accept the flimsiest of conjectures as proof positive.

The actual evidence for Chinese voyages runs out at the eastern coast of Africa and on the Australian coast. But Menzies quite happily extrapolates beyond this. Evidence of Chinese genes and customs in parts of the US? Must have been the treasure fleet (never mind that there have been plenty of other historical contacts). A map purportedly showing the northern coast of Eurasia before it was charted by the Russians? Treasure fleet must have dunnit. A natural rock formation in the Bahamas bearing some visual resemblance to a built structure. Obviously the Chinese made it - based on nothing other than Menzies' claim that the formation has dimensions similar to the largest ships in the fleet.

Menzies is either extremely gullible, or he's taking his audience for a ride on the scale of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail". I wouldn't mind if it were an exhilarating ride, but it's rather long and tedious and just no fun at all. If you want alternative history, can I suggest Harry Turtledove or Michael Moorcock as rather more entertaining?


Risible, flea-brained stupidity, 07 Sep 2008
There is such a thing as a work of fantasy. This is book is just that. No evidence whatsoever. No proof. No circumstantial evidence. Pure tosh from start to finish. This is no more history than books on Atlantis are history.
Do youselves a favour - if Sino-European history interests you, buy a good, well-respected, well-researched work on the subject. Leave foolishness like this to the idiots.

An interesting read, 30 Aug 2008
The basic premise of this book is that prior to the European voyages of discovery a massive fleet of ships left China and ended up circumnavigating the globe and on the way discovered North and South America, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand and Greenland. The author, Gavin Menzies, is a former Royal Navy submarine commander and as such much of his evidence is based on his knowledge of currents and wind direction when compared to maps that predate the voyages of Columbus. He goes on to use a number of other sources of evidence to back up his case including, among other things, the presence of mysterious wrecks scattered the globe, the presence of animals and plants outside their native lands before Europeans reached them and the diaries of the first European explorers themselves.

While much of the evidence presented in this book is thought provoking and definitely worthy of further study there are many pieces that are open to other interpretation and some that can only be described as circumstantial. I feel some of the problem that this book has is that it doesn't generally present its evidence in the best way possible being overly repetitious in places and being a bit too informal in others. Overall 1421 is an interesting book that does present many new questions for historians on the accepted view of the voyages discovery but it does require more research.

Lovely PR hype - but sadly fairly rubbish history, 19 Jun 2008
You'd hope for more from a former Royal Navy commander, but sadly while his publicity machine is first rate, his history is anything but.

It would be lovely to turn what we know about naval history on its head and say that the Chinese Admiral Zheng He conclusively 'discovered' America or Australia long before any European navigators/explorers.

Unfortunately, this book falls into the category of what publishers call "wa-wa" history. In other words, it ain't true - and the historical reseach is shoddy.

The publishers know it's rubbish. We the public know it's rubbish, but we buy it anyway. And so they publish, because they know we'll buy it and they'll make money. In other words we get the books we deserve. We should be reading decent, reseach-based histories - but we find them rather dull so we don't....

Despite the welter of 5 and 4 star reviews this book has garnered on Amazon, it is important - before you buy it - to note one important fact.

Not ONE single naval historian has given any credence to these claims. Not any European - nor any Chinese - historian. In fact, they all say that the evidence is not there.

While other readers seem to like this book, I have to say that having read other books on global trade and sea voyages in the pre-modern era, I found Menzies style very confusing and it was very difficult to follow his train of thought and how he was using evidence to support his conclusions

Astonishingly, Menzies seems to have ignored two key pieces of Chinese evidence for Zheng He's voyages which list the countries he visited - and don't mention anything that could be America.

In fact Menzies does not read Chinese and there are no direct quotes from any articles or studies written in Chinese. Which is pretty gob-smacking when you think the book is about a Chinese Admiral!

The book may be entertaining, and I am sure Gavin Menzies is a nice bloke etc etc. But that ain't enough. For me his book was full of circular reasoning, speculation, distorted sources and slapdash research.

Or as has already been said - this book may well prove to be the Piltdown Man of literature and should only be classified as fiction.

You may think this is a case of the little man, the amateur, beating the massed hords of the professionals. That is always a very beguiling image, but it's the wrong one to picture.

This book is a triumph for publishing hype and muddled thinking and writing. For that reason we should give it a wide berth. Unless of course you actually like your history as fiction. In which case, be my guest. However, you have been warned....

Mind boggling pseudo-history, 25 May 2008
His far-fetched theories, while very interesting, have no scientific basis.
Any curious fact stated in the book that was checked by a (reputable) scientists was found false.
Read the well researched and scientifically sound "When China Ruled the Seas" by Louise Levathes, or check the Internet sites at & to understand the hoax...

A bold book, 19 Dec 2008
John Man gave himself a big challenge ... to write a book that goes beyond a mere biography. To write a book that dares to go beyond all the written sources to explore not just what Genghis Khan did, but who really was Genghis Khan. It allows a glimpse of the great man's soul.

I admire Man for taking on the challenge. To do it he has collaborated extensively with the leading Mongolian and international scholars. Most importantly he has gone beyond this mere "knowledge" and built on it by visiting the key locations in Genghis' life, to get a feel for what this or that battle was like, what the childhood was like, and as a result he paints a more personal story than any other biography of Temujin.

Man makes more than a few deductions about what Temujin / Genghis was thinking at various times, but he is very good at walking the reader thru the process of his deductions. Its a brave thing to do and I award the book 4 stars for the authors tenacity and bravery in piecing together the likely thoughts of a man who lived 800 years ago.

A fifth star comes for how readable Man has made his book. It reads well and makes the book compelling.

*****



Enthusiastic but patchy, 08 Jul 2008
Genghis Khan is full of the author's enthusiasm for Mongol culture and their history, and this is charming for the most part. The period that this book deals with is fascinating, and the book itself describes engagingly the clash of urban and nomadic cultures, the intertwining of Mongolia's fate in China and how Genghis Khan may have lived and died. Much is based on conjecture; this is clearly necessary as there is only one limited source, The Secret History, from around the time. This is clearly explained in the text and where this and other sources are questionable the reader is informed and the evidence appears to be dealt with an appropriate degree of scepticism.
The lack of evidence becomes more troublesome when the author feels the need to introduce his travels to flesh out the content. As suggested in other reviews, it feels like space filler and adds very little to the book, making you wish you could hit fast forward on these sections.
Another slight annoyance is the apologist theme throughout - whenever the Mongols commit an atrocity, it is not for sadism or xenophobia's sake but as a 'sign for others' or as justifiable vengeance. Given the number of murders - particularly of non-combatants - the Mongols felt they had to commit to peoples of various backgrounds, either word didn't get around or this strategy didn't work that well.
Genghis Khan is on the whole an informative read, but I would not have resented a shorter book. I would give it three stars but I'm not sure if anyone has made a better book on this subject.

Definitive, 11 Jun 2008
If you want to know about Mr Khan, this is the book. John Man has done a brilliant job in bringing this incredible man to life. Other reviewers have explained the book well. If you are interested in Ghengis, whatever your moral compass, this is the book you need to read. Briliant.

Interesting, but too much travelogue, 19 Mar 2008
By some estimates, Genghis Khan managed to rid the world of one-tenth of its contemporary population, which means that his credentials in the noble art of mass murder are nearly unequalled. John Man gives us a more balanced picture. But beware! This is John Man, The Fan Of Khan, and he therefore tends to accentuate the positive of ol' G.K., such as it is. Certainly Genghis's empire was impressive, considering that it was all done on horseback. However, given that the Mongols were nomadic, with nothing but contempt for sedentary peoples, who merited only robbing, looting, raping and massacring, it was never going to last. Mr. Man brings the story down to the present day, with a number of countries seeking to claim the legacy of Genghis.

And this, for me, is where the problems with this book start. Mr. Man seeks out the places with which Genghis was associated - where he was born and where he possibly died. This I found interesting - up to a point. But for me, there was much too much of it and in too much detail, and after a while I found myself speeding up to get through it quicker. A shorter version of the literary traveller's tales would have made for a much better book.

The interesting and informative story of a great man, 11 Oct 2006
Genghis Khan rose from obscurity to command of the Mongol tribes and upon his death ruled one of the largest empires the world had ever seen, an empire his descendents expanded until it stretched from Korea to Hungary. This book attempts to shed some light on the life and death of Genghis Khan, sifting fact from legend and shows his place in the hearts and minds of modern Mongolian and Chinese people.

This book follows in the footsteps of the great conquer from his birth to his death. Using historical sources as well as more modern research and interspaced with tales from his own journeys around Asia, John Man weaves an interesting and enjoyable story that is a must read for anyone interested in Far Eastern history. Unlike many people I have never seen Genghis Khan as a villain but as one of the greatest men in history and I hope that this book goes some way to redress the balance oh his reputation.


Achieved its objective!, 18 Nov 2008
As the title clearly indicates, this book is an attempt to depict the experience of the crusades through Arab eyes; in my opinion, it succeeded.

Until I read this title, my two favourite works concerning the crusades were 'The first crusade' by Thomas Asbridge and 'The sword and the scimitar' by Ernle Bradford. This book joins that short list.

One of the many bonuses to this title was that it filled a lot of the gaps in the aftermath of July 1099, such as the attempts by the Fatimids to reconquer Jerusalem, how the crusaders conquered Tripoli, Acre, the impact of the Mongols and the Mamluks on Arab civilisation. You come across interesting characters including Saladin, Zangi, Nur-Al-Din, Baybars, Qutuz, to name a few.

If I have any criticism, it is that some bits of information should not be taken at face value. For instance, the author asserts that Richard the Lionheart had Conrad of Montferrat killed by the Assassins - this is speculation at best.

I really enjoyed reading this and have certainly developed a more informed view of the crusades.

Interesting book, 20 Oct 2008
Amin Maalouf is a good French-Lebanese writer, and this, a translation from the original French, reads very well.

The occasional reviewer who says that it is one-sided is a bit unfair. It is a history of the Crusades from one point of view, as Maalouf says, and as the title makes clear. In writing the book, he says in the introduction, he has deliberately relied almost exclusively on contemporary Arabic sources. Even so, his account is fairly even-handed in that respect. Sometimes he does write as if he is cheering and jeering at the appropriate places in the story, but all even-handed historians, such as Runciman, make it clear that the Crusaders were on the whole a pretty barbaric bunch. Also although Maalouf describes Crusader-Muslim alliances as "bizarre", he makes it clear that as the Crusader kingdoms become stable, they played a role that often cut across religious lines, and few leaders on either side were consistent allies to their co-religionists, nor consistent enemies to those of another faith.

Also, at the end, after detailing the huge amount that the Europeans learnt in science, technology, art, culture, medicine and so on from the Muslim world, he then considers a few things that the Muslim world even at the time could have learnt from the otherwise less advanced west, if they had wished to.

However, the strength of the book doesn't come from its even-handedness. A good history book can be as biased as the writer wants it to be in tone, so long as it is factually accurate. Maalouf's account substantially agrees with (for example) Runciman's history, but fills it out by explaining the debates, the conflicts and the plans that the Muslims had in response to the invasion.

The single perspective of the narrative would be a weakness if someone were to take this as the last word, or the most complete account of the Crusades. At times it reads almost like Hamlet without the prince, as the driving force of the narrative, necessarily, is the Crusaders themselves. Maalouf's account of them is very thin, especially when it comes to explaining their motivations, the plea for help of the Byzantine emperor, the preaching of Peter the Hermit, the mass hysteria, the hopes and the fantasies and so on. This is not really a weakness of the book, but just something you should bear in mind. Whatever the grounds for your interest in the Crusades, you would need to read an account of how it all came about. Runciman's history is the standard work, and still well regarded. Maalouf however, will add much vital information that Runciman doesn't cover, however limited Maalouf's book would be considered in itself.

The great strengths of Maalouf's book come when he is explaining the political and social context of the Muslim world at the time. His explanation of the divisions between Turkish military commander and Arab civilian, burgher and villager, qadi and officer, Sunni and Shia gives you a deeper understanding of the Crusades than you would have if you only read other sources. He also explains the Assassins in a way that treats them not as an exotic curiosity, but an important social movement.

This book will enrich whatever else you have read about the Crusades. Although many of the original Arabic texts have now been translated, his overview and narrative is based on a wide variety of Arabic sources, and gives a broad understanding of what the Muslims thought of the event, and how they reacted to it.


Overated pseudo-history, 04 May 2008
This book highlights the dangers inherent in journalists writing history. The author has a lively style and the book is ceratinly readable (one previous reviewer even fooled into thinking it's a novel!) but it is very poor as history. It lacks objectivity and although presents us with a very interesting account of events from the Arab point of view and is critical of the Muslim states and their inability to work together, displays the author's ignorance (or deliberate lack of interest in) their opponents. Western authors have been writing more balanced views of the religious wars in the middle east for some time as any serious student of mediaeval history is well aware and this books pretensions at presenting 'the other side' is disingenuous. To sum up, it reminded me of a couple of books I read many years ago about events on the Russian front in 1943 and 44, which were written by Russian authors writing under communist rule, - go figure!

Not the best account!, 06 Sep 2007
I have to disagree with the other reviewers. The idea of the book is a very good one. We're used to reading about the crusades from the western perspective. Even the most objective account will tend to examine the motivations/ideas of the crusaders rather than the Arabs. So Ma'alouf's book is needed. However, it is, academically speaking, a bit slim. In my opinion this book is NOT well researched; however, even though it does so poorly, it touches on an understudied side of the crusades.

To use a rather odd analogy: if this was a movie I'd tell you to watch it on a plane or on TV but not to buy it!

Well researched, Acessible, Intriguing, 19 Jun 2007
I'm not much of a history buff. but this book is written in a clear accessible style. Events are detailed and accurate, and the journey through time is eyeopening. Well written, read this book!

Revisionist History at its finest, 19 Dec 2008
A revision of history with respect to Genghis Khan and the enmpire he created has been long overdue. For 800 years we have a history of the Mongols being sourced almost exclusivly from the writings of the Chinese, Russians and Persians ... all people conquered by the mongols. Its inevitable that whoever writes history, writes it according to their prevailing biases. And its inevitable that the history of the mongols as written by the Chinese, Persians and Russians in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries now needs serious revision.

This book provides that revision and joins the growing movement to re-assess "the daddy" of the Mongol nation, and the worlds largest land empire. What comes out is a bright and positive view of the contributions of Genghis Khan and the empire he founded.

Genghis Kahn, a Revelation, 19 Dec 2008
Genghis Kahn and the Making of the Modern World is the best book that I have ever read in any genre. It reads like a good biographical novel, but informs like a 21st `Century anthropological textbook. It reveals truths that far exceed what conventional editors would allow in fiction. A character study, knowledge of his birthplace, kinship patterns combine with archeological studies to reveal Genghis Kahn's complex personality, a personality that refutes stereotypes found in centuries of conventional history. For example, Genghis Kahn freed Mongolians from slavery and granted religious freedom. The book includes interesting details about how competent female administrators ran an empire left by the most successful conqueror the planet has ever produced. The introduction introduces the sources of evidence by which the "how quaint the natives" conclusions that characterized colonial anthropology are refuted by more informed multidisciplinary methods.

I will make my strongest recommendation by sending my son, a graduate student in archeology, a copy of Weatherford's Genghis Khan as a birthday present.


Fantastic book!, 21 May 2008
This is a fantastic book, very well written, the more I read the more I couldn't put it down!!
Incredible how advanced Genghis Kahn ideas were, especially about religion.
Do yourself a favour and read this book!



Read this, and Change your world, 17 Aug 2007
This is not just a history, it is re-invention of our world. No one has told Genghis Khan 's story as effectively. Texts by other
historians like Paul Ratchnevsky may consult more primary sources [JW bases his work on the Secret History of the Mongols, Juvayni, and Rashid-ad-Din, Ratchnevsky consults some additional Chinese sources like the Shenwu qinzheng lu]. Texts such as Saunders may be more scholarly and are more nuanced in their conclusions, but this footnote-free story (notes are indexed to sentences only at the end) is eminently readable, and like Timothy May has said in a review, it is the kind of writing that, unlike "dusty monographs", can fire one's "love for history".

Writing with rare lyrical sensitivity, Weatherford brings across a dramatic narrative of the military conquests. The first part deals with Genghis Khan consolidating the tribes of Mongolia (Chapters 2-3). Most of the book (Chapters 4-8), deals with world conquest. Genghis Khan launched his series of conquests when in his late 40s, and within fifteen years (1212 to his death in 1227), he had conquered four times the territory of the Roman or Macedonian empires at their peak; after his death, it would be grow half as much larger.

However, the most interesting aspect of the book is its discussion of the impact of this large trade-friendly empire, lasting over 200 years, may have had (Chapter 9). Printing, firearms, the use of the compass in navigation, bowed instruments such as the violin, all came to Europe through Mongol interactions. Furthermore, processes such as codification of laws, lightning mobility in war (the inspiration for Nazi "blitzkrieg"), religious freedom, and participative government, all taken for granted today, were practiced in the Mongol Empire and may have influenced European thinking during the Renaissance that immediately followed the breakup of the empire.

Maybe he over-dramatizes things when saying: "Under the widespread influences from the paper and printing, gunpowder and firearms, and the spread of the navigational compass and other maritime equipment, Europeans experienced a Renaissance, literally a rebirth, but it was not the ancient world of Greece or Rome being reborn. It was the Mongol Empire, picked up, transferred, and adapted by the Europeans to their own needs and culture." But on the whole he presents overwhelming evidence of our debt to the Mongols, an aspect that was covered up during the Age of Enlightenment (Chapter 10 deals with this historiographical process).

I found the book extremely thought-provoking; it led me to read Ratchnevsky and I am now looking through Saunders. I also went to several online sources simply to verify the claims he makes; I found most of them well-corroborated. Reading this book was absolutely eye-opening. It has completely changed my world view.

Very Good, 12 Apr 2007
This book offers a well laid out history that is both easy to follow and an interesting read. The description of the life and times of Genghis Khan are well complimented by the concluding chapters covering Genghis Khan's impact; after death and importantly, today.

Almost perfect., 26 Jun 2004
This book is intended for everybody who is interested in byzantine history,(maybe for an early student of byzantium as well)but not for specialists.
Written in an academic language by Cyril Mango, i had some unknonwn words. The language of the other historians writing in the book is quite flawless. The book contains many information on both culture and military history of byzantium and is superbly illustrated(emphasis given to hagiographies). My rating is 5 stars for all above; but what made it a 5 and not a 4 is the sincerity of the writers as to religion(christianity). Patriarchs, priests and followers of christianity arent seen as holy persons(*Julius Norwich* for example did exactly the opposite in many cases); instead, they are judged in the same way as islamists or the pope or western christians are.
I find his objective judgement very important because, although we know that he killed his wife and his son, *some* try to hide these informations in order to remain 'perfect' in the eyes of followers. It's good when historians write history as it is, and not the way some would like it to be...

Mango shines, 25 Nov 2002
Excellent presentation, fantasic pictures, the clarity of the text was outstanding, all the authors are world renound experts in thier particular fields. The sections from Mango himself were a particular treat, brillianty written and as awlays he never assumes that the reader knows to much, or in some casese to little. The last section on the Paiologan dynasty, was as good, if not better than anything that Nicol could have written.The oxford history will once and for all cast off the shadow left by Gibbon. In short this is SUPERB. This is a book for specialists and those with only a passing intrest in the subject. BUY IT NOW

Tedious and unconvincing, 20 Dec 2008
Fascinating story, but it rapidly became clear as I worked through the book that Menzies is prepared to accept pretty much anything anyone tells him as "evidence". The story starts with the well documented and widely accepted story of Zheng He and the treasure fleets of the early Ming dynasty. These were remarkable vessels and their story, and the large amount of evidence behind it, is ably covered in "When China ruled the seas" by Louise Levathes. The difference between the two authors is that Levathes (mostly) restricts herself to what the evidence supports, while Menzies is happy to accept the flimsiest of conjectures as proof positive.

The actual evidence for Chinese voyages runs out at the eastern coast of Africa and on the Australian coast. But Menzies quite happily extrapolates beyond this. Evidence of Chinese genes and customs in parts of the US? Must have been the treasure fleet (never mind that there have been plenty of other historical contacts). A map purportedly showing the northern coast of Eurasia before it was charted by the Russians? Treasure fleet must have dunnit. A natural rock formation in the Bahamas bearing some visual resemblance to a built structure. Obviously the Chinese made it - based on nothing other than Menzies' claim that the formation has dimensions similar to the largest ships in the fleet.

Menzies is either extremely gullible, or he's taking his audience for a ride on the scale of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail". I wouldn't mind if it were an exhilarating ride, but it's rather long and tedious and just no fun at all. If you want alternative history, can I suggest Harry Turtledove or Michael Moorcock as rather more entertaining?


Risible, flea-brained stupidity, 07 Sep 2008
There is such a thing as a work of fantasy. This is book is just that. No evidence whatsoever. No proof. No circumstantial evidence. Pure tosh from start to finish. This is no more history than books on Atlantis are history.
Do youselves a favour - if Sino-European history interests you, buy a good, well-respected, well-researched work on the subject. Leave foolishness like this to the idiots.

An interesting read, 30 Aug 2008
The basic premise of this book is that prior to the European voyages of discovery a massive fleet of ships left China and ended up circumnavigating the globe and on the way discovered North and South America, Antarctica, Australia, New Zealand and Greenland. The author, Gavin Menzies, is a former Royal Navy submarine commander and as such much of his evidence is based on his knowledge of currents and wind direction when compared to maps that predate the voyages of Columbus. He goes on to use a number of other sources of evidence to back up his case including, among other things, the presence of mysterious wrecks scattered the globe, the presence of animals and plants outside their native lands before Europeans reached them and the diaries of the first European explorers themselves.

While much of the evidence presented in this book is thought provoking and definitely worthy of further study there are many pieces that are open to other interpretation and some that can only be described as circumstantial. I feel some of the problem that this book has is that it doesn't generally present its evidence in the best way possible being overly repetitious in places and being a bit too informal in others. Overall 1421 is an interesting book that does present many new questions for historians on the accepted view of the voyages discovery but it does require more research.

Lovely PR hype - but sadly fairly rubbish history, 19 Jun 2008
You'd hope for more from a former Royal Navy commander, but sadly while his publicity machine is first rate, his history is anything but.

It would be lovely to turn what we know about naval history on its head and say that the Chinese Admiral Zheng He conclusively 'discovered' America or Australia long before any European navigators/explorers.

Unfortunately, this book falls into the category of what publishers call "wa-wa" history. In other words, it ain't true - and the historical reseach is shoddy.

The publishers know it's rubbish. We the public know it's rubbish, but we buy it anyway. And so they publish, because they know we'll buy it and they'll make money. In other words we get the books we deserve. We should be reading decent, reseach-based histories - but we find them rather dull so we don't....

Despite the welter of 5 and 4 star reviews this book has garnered on Amazon, it is important - before you buy it - to note one important fact.

Not ONE single naval historian has given any credence to these claims. Not any European - nor any Chinese - historian. In fact, they all say that the evidence is not there.

While other readers seem to like this book, I have to say that having read other books on global trade and sea voyages in the pre-modern era, I found Menzies style very confusing and it was very difficult to follow his train of thought and how he was using evidence to support his conclusions

Astonishingly, Menzies seems to have ignored two key pieces of Chinese evidence for Zheng He's voyages which list the countries he visited - and don't mention anything that could be America.

In fact Menzies does not read Chinese and there are no direct quotes from any articles or studies written in Chinese. Which is pretty gob-smacking when you think the book is about a Chinese Admiral!

The book may be entertaining, and I am sure Gavin Menzies is a nice bloke etc etc. But that ain't enough. For me his book was full of circular reasoning, speculation, distorted sources and slapdash research.

Or as has already been said - this book may well prove to be the Piltdown Man of literature and should only be classified as fiction.

You may think this is a case of the little man, the amateur, beating the massed hords of the professionals. That is always a very beguiling image, but it's the wrong one to picture.

This book is a triumph for publishing hype and muddled thinking and writing. For that reason we should give it a wide berth. Unless of course you actually like your history as fiction. In which case, be my guest. However, you have been warned....

Mind boggling pseudo-history, 25 May 2008
His far-fetched theories, while very interesting, have no scientific basis.
Any curious fact stated in the book that was checked by a (reputable) scientists was found false.
Read the well researched and scientifically sound "When China Ruled the Seas" by Louise Levathes, or check the Internet sites at & to understand the hoax...

A bold book, 19 Dec 2008
John Man gave himself a big challenge ... to write a book that goes beyond a mere biography. To write a book that dares to go beyond all the written sources to explore not just what Genghis Khan did, but who really was Genghis Khan. It allows a glimpse of the great man's soul.

I admire Man for taking on the challenge. To do it he has collaborated extensively with the leading Mongolian and international scholars. Most importantly he has gone beyond this mere "knowledge" and built on it by visiting the key locations in Genghis' life, to get a feel for what this or that battle was like, what the childhood was like, and as a result he paints a more personal story than any other biography of Temujin.

Man makes more than a few deductions about what Temujin / Genghis was thinking at various times, but he is very good at walking the reader thru the process of his deductions. Its a brave thing to do and I award the book 4 stars for the authors tenacity and bravery in piecing together the likely thoughts of a man who lived 800 years ago.

A fifth star comes for how readable Man has made his book. It reads well and makes the book compelling.

*****



Enthusiastic but patchy, 08 Jul 2008
Genghis Khan is full of the author's enthusiasm for Mongol culture and their history, and this is charming for the most part. The period that this book deals with is fascinating, and the book itself describes engagingly the clash of urban and nomadic cultures, the intertwining of Mongolia's fate in China and how Genghis Khan may have lived and died. Much is based on conjecture; this is clearly necessary as there is only one limited source, The Secret History, from around the time. This is clearly explained in the text and where this and other sources are questionable the reader is informed and the evidence appears to be dealt with an appropriate degree of scepticism.
The lack of evidence becomes more troublesome when the author feels the need to introduce his travels to flesh out the content. As suggested in other reviews, it feels like space filler and adds very little to the book, making you wish you could hit fast forward on these sections.
Another slight annoyance is t