THREE weeks after its American release, anthropologist Jack Weatherford's new book Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World has been on the New York Times Bestseller List for two weeks, bringing Mongolia into the literary spotlight.
Weatherford, a professor at Minnesota's Macalester College. has captured public interest by recasting Chinggis Khaan as the greatest and most intelligent conqueror, leader, and cultural cross-pollinator the world has ever seen. This is at odds with popular thought as the mention of the famous Mongolian conqueror still, for many Westerners, conjures up the image of a bloodthirsty barbarian on horseback, roaming and looting the civilized world.
In writing the book. Weatherford spent more than seven years researching and traveling throughout Asia to uncover the true history of this mythic figure. It was the end of the Soviet .occupation of Mongolia that allowed Weatherford a unique opportunity to be one of the first Westerners to enter the forbidden zone of Chinggis Khaan's childhood and contested burial ground — an expanse of land that was impenetrable for nearly eight centuries.