Cell Biology & Genetics Book

I definitely thought this book came out in 2001 - until I got a copy from work that was published in 1971. So yes, this book is a bit dated, a bit old. On the very first page, Saunders writes: "Few documented studies... exist of the amazing career of Chingis (or, as he is better known Genghis) Khan; no scholarly life of his famous grandson Kubilai Khan, immortalized by Marco Polo and Coleridge, exists in any Western language, and even the best general histories of the medieval world deal very curiously with these tremendous events." Obviously things have changed a bit since 1971, and we have received a number of excellent works covering various topics of the Mongol Empire. But although the book is old, it doesn't mean that the information it contains is wrong or lacking, and I found that I learned quite a bit.

I often find older history books to be dry and tedious to get though. I didn't feel that way with this book. Saunders' writing flows and it flows quickly. Almost too quickly. This book really is A Brief History of the Mongol Conquests. There's very little depth or detail to any of the campaigns or battles. Indeed, Khubilai takes over southern China in less than a page. But it's all very readable, even if I think Saunders' writing is plagued by too many commas: "That duty he was, however, unable to discharge, and Transoxiana, during his reign, fell to the Kara-Kitay, a pagan people, and for the first time a Muslim land was lost to the infidel." It's lots of that, basically.

One of the things I thought was so interesting about this book was the focus outside of the Mongol Empire from Genghis to Khubilai. Saunders gives a good overview of the Turks before the Mongols and spends a great deal of time discussing events of the Il-Khanate, Golden Horde and Chagatai Khanate. A lot of this was new to me and introduced lots of interesting events and people. But it does move very fast and it's a lot of names and places to take in in a short number of pages. The whole book is only 199 pages before the notes.

I think the only thing I can fault the book on is the lack of detail. Don't get me wrong, it does give a very good overview of all the Mongol campaigns and goes well beyond the scope I assumed it would, which was a very welcome find. But if you're looking for more than a glance at anything, you almost need to look elsewhere. I applaud the book for its readability and breadth of time it covers, but I felt it was lacking as a "history" of these campaigns.