Best Books About the Mongol Empire

IN TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, Genghis Khan conquered more territory than the Roman Empire did in four centuries. The Mongol Empire reshaped trade routes, spread plague, destroyed civilizations, and connected the world in ways that persisted long after the empire itself fragmented. These books tell that story.

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

Weatherford, an anthropologist who spent years in Mongolia, argues that Genghis Khan was one of the most consequential figures in human history and that Western historians have underestimated him. His account of how Genghis Khan unified the steppe tribes, built an unprecedented military machine, and created a meritocratic empire is compelling and occasionally revisionist in productive ways. One of the most readable history books of the last twenty years.

The Secret History of the Mongols

This is the oldest surviving Mongolian literary work, written shortly after Genghis Khan's death. It is the primary Mongolian source on his life and the creation of the empire. Modern translations with commentary by scholars like Igor de Rachewiltz make it accessible. Reading the story in the words of people who lived through it is a different experience from any secondary account.

The Mongol Conquests by Timothy May

May is a specialist in Mongol military history who teaches at the University of North Georgia. His account of the military campaigns, from the initial unification through the conquest of China, Persia, and the campaigns into Europe, is detailed, scholarly, and still readable. He is good on the logistics of moving armies across the Eurasian steppe, which is more interesting than it sounds.

Empires of the Silk Road by Christopher Beckwith

Beckwith's unconventional account of Central Asian history rehabilitates the nomadic peoples of the steppe from their standard portrayal as destroyers. He argues that the pastoral nomads of Eurasia, including the Mongols, were builders and transmitters of culture as much as conquerors. His analysis of how Mongol control of the Silk Road accelerated the exchange of goods, diseases, and ideas between East and West is particularly good.

The Plague Cycle by Charles Kenny

The Black Death that killed a third of Europe's population in the 1340s almost certainly traveled along Mongol trade routes. Kenny's account of how disease and human history have shaped each other uses the Pax Mongolica, the era of relative peace and trade under Mongol rule, as a case study in how connectivity creates vulnerability to epidemic disease. Timely reading for obvious reasons.

What the Mongols Changed

The Mongol Empire's most enduring legacy may be the first truly connected Eurasian world. For a century, it was possible to travel from China to Eastern Europe under a single administrative system. That connectivity spread the Black Death. It also spread papermaking, printing, gunpowder, and the compass from China to the West. The world we live in was partly built by consequences the Mongols set in motion.