Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy 1st Edition

This man in translation still has interesting prose. The more I read the more I was impressed with his scholarship and the amount of work he did. Digging out the oldest manuscripts findable is Arabic, Old Uighor, Chinese, and Russian. Referring frequently to The Secret History of the Mongols. I more than very strongly recommend this.

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

This book is slow and loses interest quickly

This book was already considered the definitive biography of Chinggis Khan when it was first published in German over 30 years ago. Now in a modern and improved translation in English, this book has become even more invaluable and authoritative. The book covers the time period from a history of pre-Chinggis Mongolia and surrounding areas to Chinggis Khan’s death and legacy. Other features include a concise chronology, list of important Mongol individuals, and a genealogy of Chinggis and his family. chapters even cover Chinggis Khan’s personality and inner workings of his empire. Two topics rarely touched upon in other books. All this extensive information is supplemented by many stunning illustrations, photos, and maps.Despite the breakthrough of this book and its contents, there a few drawbacks. All the notes of the original German are stuffed into endnotes at the back of the book. This can be annoying for students or scholars. The bibliography is almost useless to English speaking students or scholars as most books and articles are in German.So while this book has a few drawbacks, the readability, academic, and exhaustive account of Chinggis’s life is not and will not be surpassed any time soon. A book I recommend for students, scholars, and general readers. (That’s something I can rarely say with regards to the Mongols and their history)

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

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

I like the subject matter but the writing style was a little too dry for me to give the book a higher rating.

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