Jack Weatherford scores another hit with new Mongol Queens history; Six years ago, Jack Weatherford’s best-selling history, Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, ignited a global reappraisal of the Mongolian empire and its positive contributions. Weatherford has done it again in his masterful sequel, The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire. This highly-readable new book was the result of Weatherford recognizing that one volume could not convey all he wanted to write about the 13th-century ruler who shaped the largest empire in the history of the world and those who inherited it. Honored in Mongolia as “Book of the Year” for 2009 in its Mongolian language edition, Scientific American listed Mongol Queens as a Recommended Book for 2010. One reviewer praised the author’s original research and ability to explain the complicated relationships, noting that “Weatherford writes clearly and dynamically.” The Secret History is available at Amazon.com in hardback, paperback and Kindle, at BarnesandNoble.com and other booksellers. Dr. Jack Weatherford holds the DeWitt Wallace Chair of Anthropology at Macalester College in Minnesota and an honorary position at Chinggis Khaan University in Mongolia . In 2007 he received the Order of the Polar Star, Mongolia ’s highest decoration. He is also the author of Indian Givers, Native Roots, Savages and Civilizations, and The History of Money. As one reviewer noted, Weatherford was fascinated by the unique and central role played by the Great Khan's female descendants at a time when political power was reserved for men only and written histories were dominated by male authors writing about male leaders. As Weatherford says in his new book, "Genghis Khan sired four self-indulgent sons who proved good at drinking, mediocre in fighting, and poor at every- thing else; yet their names live on despite the damage they did to their father's empire." However, the ruler's seven or eight daughters (Weatherford notes that documentation is unclear about the exact number had "superior leadership abilities" to the sons, so the Great Khan willed "strategically important parts of his empire" to the women. Without the wisdom of the daughters, Weatherford convincingly argues, the Mongol Empire would have crumbled much faster than it did, eventually dissolving during the middle of the 14th century. Weatherford notes that Mongol pride did not disappear. One reviewer wrote that “the most compelling part of Weatherford's new book is the restoration of the Mongol empire during the late 15th century with the emergence of another woman descended from Genghis Khan, a woman known by the name Queen Manduhai the Wise.” Manduhai continues today as an important figure in Mongolian popular culture, the subject of movies, operas and songs. |
President Elbegdorj (r) receives the first copy of Mongol Queens from Dr. Jack Weatherford |
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