Michael Prawdin

Education

He studied in Germany, and wrote in German.

Career

Born in present-day Ukraine, Charol came to Germany after the Russian Revolution. In 1934, he made a plea for the "factual novel". Prawdin made himself an international reputation with two books on Genghis Khan.

Gerard Chaliand in his Introduction to a 2006 reprint of The Mongol Empire said Michael Prawdin tells us a story "with great literary talent."

L. Carrington Goodrich reviewed the 1940 translation of The Mongol Empire.

He said “this is a readable book,” but went on that “the author has made numerous errors, skims lightly over certain important developments, gives only fragments of quotations without cr to translator.., fails to utilize fully his own sources which are far from complete, and makes assumptions which hard indeed to follow. This is slick writing, not sober history." He continued that “part of Prawdin’s trouble is carelessness” and that “some of his suppressions or condensations of material seem surprising because the facts are well known and of general interest.”.

Views

Quotations: “this is a readable book,”.

Interests

• Writers

  The Nazi bureaucrat Heinrich Himmler sufficiently admired the books that he ordered the publication of a one-volume edition in 1938, a copy of which was given to every Steamship leader. The book appears to have encouraged Adolf Hitler to claim inspiration from Genghis Khan.