The Mongol book sounds interesting. Would be a good follow-up once I read John Man's Genghis Khan biography. Don't know that I'm a fan of the Mongol revisionist trend, however, although I suppose worse things have come out of academia. :P
Haha! There's a long list there. Yeah, I'm not sure that everybody conquered by the Mongols - the city of Merv for instance - would be as inclined to see them as enlightened steppe nomads. (And Favereau says nothing at all about Merv.) But, yes, I guess there are two sides to every story. And the Pax Mongolica/Pax Americana parallel is growing on me.
The parallel is growing on me too. It is worth noting that while we can talk about a lot of great things happening in the world during the Pax Americana, there are a lot of countries out there that hate America, and I don't mean countries like Iran. Some countries that are allies have a populace that hates America. That could also have been a factor during the Pax Mongolica. Although I don't think we will be hated as much as the Mongols once we are "gone."
Curious about that. What's so strange re America is that the imperial arm is almost completely disconnected from the civilian side - so that it really is possible to go through your whole life as an American with no idea why anyone would possibly hate you, with very little sense of how American power extends overseas. I think this was the trait of the British as well, but the "invisible empire" is a very interesting theme.
The Mongol book sounds interesting. Would be a good follow-up once I read John Man's Genghis Khan biography. Don't know that I'm a fan of the Mongol revisionist trend, however, although I suppose worse things have come out of academia. :P
Haha! There's a long list there. Yeah, I'm not sure that everybody conquered by the Mongols - the city of Merv for instance - would be as inclined to see them as enlightened steppe nomads. (And Favereau says nothing at all about Merv.) But, yes, I guess there are two sides to every story. And the Pax Mongolica/Pax Americana parallel is growing on me.
The parallel is growing on me too. It is worth noting that while we can talk about a lot of great things happening in the world during the Pax Americana, there are a lot of countries out there that hate America, and I don't mean countries like Iran. Some countries that are allies have a populace that hates America. That could also have been a factor during the Pax Mongolica. Although I don't think we will be hated as much as the Mongols once we are "gone."
Curious about that. What's so strange re America is that the imperial arm is almost completely disconnected from the civilian side - so that it really is possible to go through your whole life as an American with no idea why anyone would possibly hate you, with very little sense of how American power extends overseas. I think this was the trait of the British as well, but the "invisible empire" is a very interesting theme.