43 pages • 1 hour read
Jack WeatherfordGenghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Epilogue: “The Eternal Spirit of Genghis Khan”Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Epilogue
Epilogue Summary
In the Epilogue, Weatherford returns to his account of his fieldwork in modern Mongolia with a group of local scholars. Following evidence from The Secret History of the Mongols, they believe they have found the location at which Temujin reclaimed Borte from the Merkids after her abduction. Weatherford is inspired by the reverence with which the site is treated by the Mongolians. He sees, in the respect they hold for their ancestors, evidence that Genghis Khan’s legacy is enduring and continues to affect not only the greater currents of world politics (as in the rest of his argument) but also the lives of modern Mongolians on a personal level.
Epilogue Analysis
Weatherford’s epilogue offers a rich description of his experiences in the Mongolian wilderness. His guides show an impressive aptitude for route-finding across the featureless steppe, and he knows that their knowledge of the land comes from the many centuries they have inhabited it. The conclusion he comes to stands in stark contrast to the rest of his history. While the rest of his account focuses on the large-scale effects of the founding and history of the Mongol Empire, the Epilogue grants him a chance to describe the profound impact that Genghis’s legacy has had on modern Mongolians.
