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A landmark biography by the New York Times bestselling author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World that reveals how Genghis harnessed the power of religion to rule the largest empire the world has ever known. Throughout history the world's greatest conquerors have made their mark not just on the battlefield, but in the societies they have transformed. Genghis Khan conquered by arms and bravery, but he ruled by commerce and religion. He created the world's greatest trading network and drastically lowered taxes for merchants, but he knew that if his empire was going to last, he would need something stronger and more binding than trade. He needed religion. And so, unlike the Christian, Taoist and Muslim conquerors who came before him, he gave his subjects freedom of religion. Genghis lived in the 13th century, but he struggled with many of the same problems we face today: How should one balance religious freedom with the need to reign in fanatics? Can one compel rival religions - driven by deep seated hatred--to live together in peace? A celebrated anthropologist whose bestselling Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World radically transformed our understanding of the Mongols and their legacy, Jack Weatherford has spent eighteen years exploring areas of Mongolia closed until the fall of the Soviet Union and researching The Secret History of the Mongols, an astonishing document written in code that was only recently discovered. He pored through archives and found groundbreaking evidence of Genghis's influence on the founding fathers and his essential impact on Thomas Jefferson. Genghis Khan and the Quest for God is a masterpiece of erudition and insight, his most personal and resonant work.



About the Author

Jack Weatherford

Jack Weatherford is the New York Times bestselling author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, which sold over 300,000 copies and has been optioned by Wolf Films (producer of Law and Order) , Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed The world, his first national bestseller, The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, optioned by The Weinstein Company, and The History of Money, among other acclaimed books that have been published in more than twenty-five languages. In 2006 he spoke at the United Nations to honor the 800th anniversary of the founding of the Mongol nation by Genghis Khan. In 2007 President Enkhbayar of Mongolia awarded him Mongolia's highest honor for military or civilian service. Although the original Spanish edition of Indian Givers was banned in some parts of Latin America, nearly a quarter of a century later Bolivia honored him for this work on the indigenous people of the Americas. A specialist in tribal peoples, he taught for twenty-nine years at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he held the DeWitt Wallace Distinguished Chair of Anthropology. He graduated from high school with Walker Pearce, to whom he was married from 1970 until her death in 2013. He now divides his time between their home in Charleston, South Carolina and Tur Hurah on the Bogd Khan Mountain in Mongolia.



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