The man who emerged was a ruthless, brilliant tactician with a profound grasp of realpolitik, but one eye fixed firmly on his destiny...How Genghis united the deeply divided Mongol peoples and went on to rule a tract of land which stretched from China in the east to Poland in the west (a substantially larger area than was encompassed by the Roman empire at its zenith) is an epic tale of martial genius and breathtaking cruelty. John Man's towering achievement in this book, enriched by his experiences in China and Mongolia today, is to bring this little-known story vividly and viscerally to life.

Author Biography

John Man is a historian and travelwriter with a special interest in Mongolia. After reading German and French at Oxford he did two postgraduate courses, one in the history of science at Oxford , the other in Mongolian at the School of Oriental and African Studies. His GOBI: TRACKING THE DESERT (Weidenfeld, 1997) was the first book on the subject in English since the 1920s. He is also the author of THE ATLAS OF THE YEAR 1000, (Penguin 1999), ALPHA BETA (Headline, 2000) on the roots of the Roman alphabet and THE GUTENBERG REVOLUTION (Headline 2002) on the origins and impact of printing.