Feedback from Jack Weatherford

Thank you for those great comments. I enjoyed reading them and looking at
your website. Because I work alone and try to keep my head buried in my
work, I am very delighted to hear comments such as yours. Even if I don't
deserve that much praise, it's nice to read.

For the last few years I have been working in Mongolia, and that book
should be our in the Fall (I think). I was working on their history for
several reasons. I like them very much, and I love their world. But more
importantly they gave me a good example of a tribal people who had "won" by
conquering the largest empire in world history. Yet, in the end they live
much like any other people who have clung to their tribal identity -- they
are poor and on the margins. The whole country of Mongolia and the whole
Chinese province of Inner Mongoila are much like giant Indian revervations
-- same conditions, problems, etc.

The Mongols were also of interest to me because they became the
"scientific" prototype for the Asian race and later for the American
Indians -- Mongoloids, as they came to be called.

Now the book is pretty much finished, but I am dealing with lots of final
issues. I am thinking of calling it The Missing Face of Genghis Khan since
it centers on him and he never allowed his portrait to be made. All of our
histories of him are from hostile foreigners. I am a foreigner, but I am
trying not to be so hostile. I see him as a tribal leader who faced the
same problems as Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Tecumseh, Shaka Zulu, and many
others. They are all the missing faces in our history.

To do the work, I travlled Mongolia with Mongols deciding where I should
go, what I should do, and what I should think about. It was an exhilirating
experience. Now my Mongol colleagues are reviewing the manuscript before I
publish it.

Well, that is probably more than you wante to know about him. (By the way,
in the Marxist camps, the Soviets were anti-Genghis and the Chinese
communists have always been pro-Genghis).

Again, thanks for the encouragement!

Jack 


Louis Proyect
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