Genghis Khan and the Quest for God: How the World’s Greatest Conqueror Gave Us Religious Freedom

Description

Summary: The quest for God doesn´t matter, lowering taxes does. Thru history the world’s great conquerors have made their mark not just on the battlefield, but also in the societies they've transformed. Genghis Khan conquered by arms & bravery. He ruled by rising commerce & curbing religion. He transformed the silk road into the world’s most effective trading network, established new laws & drastically lowered merchant taxes. But he knew that if his empire was going to last, he'd need something stronger & more binding than trade. He needed controlling the religious cults. Unlike the Christian, Taoist & Muslim conquerors who'd come before, he gave his subjects freedom of cult using an argument that would directly influence Th Jefferson. But before that, he looted their shrines, killed their priests. Genghis lived in the 13th century, but he struggled with many of the same problems faced today: How may one balance cultic freedom with the need to restrain fanatics? By enhancing the cults´religious contents, perhaps? Can one compel rival cult—driven by deep-seated hatred—to live together peacefully? Genghis had no patience for it, nor our world can wait. Kill priests, low taxes, and set up total freedom of commerce. A celebrated anthropologist whose bestselling Genghis Khan & the Making of the Modern World radically transformed our understanding of the Mongols & their legacy, Weatherford has spent 18 years exploring areas of Mongolia closed until the USSR's fall & researching The Secret History of the Mongols, an astonishing document written in code that was only recently discovered. He pored thru archives & found groundbreaking evidence of Genghis’ influence on the founding fathers. Now, with this masterpiece of historical erudition & religious denial, he's written his most provocative work. Preface: Genghis Khan, Thomas Jefferson, and God Introduction: The Anger of the Gods I. BECOMING TEMUJIN 1. The Teeth That Eat Men 2. The Golden Whip of Heaven 3. Wisdom of the Steppe 4. Conflicting Selves II. BECOMING GENGHIS KHAN 5. Messenger of Light 6. Jesus of the Steppe 7. The Making of the Mongol Nation 8. Guardians of the Flame III. BECOMING THE WORLD CONQUEROR 9. Two Wings of One Bird 10. God’s Omnipotence 11. The Thumb of Fate 12. Wild Man from the Mountain 13. The Confucian and the Unicorn IV. BECOMING A GOD 14. The Last Campaign 15. War, Inside and Out 16. Burning the Books 17. Life After Death 18. The Unfulfilled Law E