Search - Biography - Genghis Khan (A&E DVD Archives) on DVD

Grossly inaccurate

Luigi Kapaj | 12/21/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"It was pathetically inaccurate. The sole source they cited was the Secret History, and they had a Professor of Asiatic studies from Columbia U for historical advisor; yet, even ignoring the usual 'they were vicious barbarians' slant, the piece was riddled with mistakes. The first thing I caught was a misquote from the Secret History citing the legend of the five brothers as a story about Chingghis's immediate family. After that I paid more careful attention. They did not mention his name 'Temujin' once but rather saying he was born 'Genghis'. How can they claim to be biography and not even mention the man's name? They went so far as to claim his wife and mother started the war between him and Jamuga out of jealousy over their gay love. Another glairing mistake was the when and why of invading the Song. They glossed over any political interaction as Genghis 'finding an excuse to go to war'. For an amateur historian like me to so easily spot as many mistakes as I did is pretty sad. A waste of money!"

I swear not to buy A&E biographies anymore

Guillermo A. PUYANA RAMOS | Bogotá COLOMBIA | 09/16/2001

(1 out of 5 stars)

"How could history be put so simply like A&E does in every biography I bought about China and Asian history? I try to understand these works are for the general public, but the conclusion is that general public is being mislead with this kind of material. My first experience was with the Mao's biography, then with the one about Marco Polo. The worst is that I bought also the Pol Pot and Chiang Kaishek biographies and have not seen them yet.
The Gengis Khan biography is full of awkward commentaries with emphasis on a supossed bloody nature of the mongols. They were no bloodier than were the rest of societies that engaged on conquest, to say the europeans themselves. The Gengis Khan was more than strategist and a ruthless leader of hordes and tribes from Mongolia.
There is no analisys about the rising of the Yuan dinasty that was created after the mongols took CHina and the cultural, historical and political implications of the east-west contact.
The emphasis is put on extremely doubtful anecdotaries, that produces a sensasionalist account about the creator of the biggest empire of the world history."

Not accurate

Masahiro | California | 05/27/2007

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Some images used in this program are Japanese pictures from various periods. One of them is Prince Shotoku from 6th century in Japan and nothing to do with this program. I began to wonder what is correct and what is not. So, I stopped watching it."