British historian and travel writer (born 1941)
This article is about the contemporary British author. For people with similar names, see
John Mann
.
John Man
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Born
| (
1941-05-15
)
15 May 1941
(age 83)
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Occupation
| Historian, travel writer
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Nationality
| British
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Period
| 1999?present
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Genre
| Historical, travel writing
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Notable works
| Genghis Khan
,
Kublai Khan
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John Anthony Garnet Man
(born 15 May 1941) is a British historian and travel writer. His special interests are
China
,
Mongolia
and the history of
written communication
.
[1]
Early life
[
edit
]
Man studied German and French at
Keble College, Oxford
, before completing two postgraduate courses, a diploma in the History and Philosophy of Science at Oxford and Mongolian at the
School of Oriental and African Studies
, finishing the latter in 1968.
[2]
Career
[
edit
]
After working in journalism with
Reuters
and in publishing with
Time Life
Books, Man turned to writing, with occasional forays into film, TV and radio.
In the 1990s, he began a series on the revolutions in writing: writing itself, the alphabet and printing with movable type. This resulted in two books,
Alpha Beta
and
The Gutenberg Revolution
, both republished in 2009.
He returned to the subject of Mongolia with
Gobi: Tracking the Desert
, the first book on the region since the 1920s. Work in Mongolia led to
Genghis Khan
: Life, Death and Resurrection
, published in 2004, which has so far appeared in 21 languages.
Attila
the Hun
and
Kublai Khan
: The Mongol King Who Remade China
, published in 2005 and 2006, respectively, completed a trilogy on Asian leaders.
In 2007 John Man was awarded Mongolia's Friendship Medal for his contributions to UK?Mongolian relations.
Man's 2007 book
The
Terracotta Army
coincided with the
British Museum
exhibition (September 2007 ? April 2008). This was followed by
The Great Wall
, published in 2008.
The Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan
(2009) combines history and leadership theory.
Xanadu
:
Marco Polo
and the Discovery of the East
was published in autumn 2009, and
Samurai: The Last Warrior
, the story of
Saig? Takamori
's doomed
1877 rebellion
against the Japanese emperor, was published in February 2011.
The Mongol Empire
(2014) tells the story of the world's greatest land empire, established by Genghis and taken to its fullest extent by his grandson Kublai. It develops two major themes touched on in previous books: the nature of the Mongols' ideology of world rule and the consequences for the modern world of Kublai's conquest of all China.
Also in 2014,
Xanadu: Marco Polo and Europe's Discovery of the East
was acquired by HarperCollins US, who retitled the book
Marco Polo
to accompany the 10-part
Netflix
original TV series
Marco Polo
.
He is married to writer
Timberlake Wertenbaker
. Together, they translated the English production of the Mongolian play
The Mongol Khan
.
[3]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- The Birth of our Planet
(1997)
- Gobi: Tracking the Desert
(1997)
- Atlas of the Year 1000
(1999)
- Alpha Beta: How 26 Letters Shaped the Western World
(2000)
- Comets, Meteors and Asteroids
(2001)
- The Gutenberg Revolution: The Story of a Genius and an Invention That Changed the World
(2003)
- Genghis Khan: Life, Death and Resurrection
(2004)
- Attila: The Barbarian King Who Challenged Rome
(2005)
- Kublai Khan: The Mongol King Who Remade China
(2006)
- The Terracotta Army: China's First Emperor and the Birth of a Nation
(2007)
- The Great Wall: The Extraordinary Story of China's Wonder of the World
(2008)
- Xanadu: Marco Polo and Europe's Discovery of the East
(2009)
- The Leadership Secrets of Genghis Khan
(2009)
- Samurai: The Last Warrior
(2011)
- Ninja: 1,000 Years of the Shadow Warrior
(2012)
- The Mongol Empire: The Conquests of Genghis Khan and the Making of Modern China
(2014)
- Saladin: The Life, The Legend and the Islamic Empire
(2015)
- The Amazons: The Real Warrior Women of the Ancient World
(2017)
- Empire of Horses: The First Nomadic Civilization and the Making of China
(2019)
References
[
edit
]
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International
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National
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People
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Other
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