Through his academic publications and broader writing, Weatherford has brought global attention to overlooked histories, enriching public understanding of cultural exchange, innovation, and the evolving dynamics of power throughout history.
Biography
In 1946 Weatherford was born on a farm in Dovesville, South Carolina to Anna Ruth Grooms and Alfred Gregg Weatherford, as the oldest of seven children. His father fought in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, and died from Agent Orange Disease with the rank of Sergeant. In 1964, Weatherford graduated from Dreher High School with Walker Pearce to whom he was married from 1970 until her death from multiple sclerosis in 2013. After a graduate degree from the University of South Carolina, where he also worked as an informant for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) in a case that later became Bursey v. Weatherford,[2] he earned his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, San Diego with additional graduate work at Frankfurt University and Duke University.[3] He worked as legislative assistant to Senator John Glenn and taught for twenty-nine years at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he held the DeWitt Wallace Distinguished Chair of Anthropology.
He became more widely known for his book, The History of Money (1997), which was chosen as a selection of the Conservative Book of the Month Club. In addition, Weatherford's articles about the anthropology of 20th-century American politics and analysis of its clans, have led to his being invited as a commentator on radio and television programs, including The Today Show, ABC Evening News with Peter Jennings, Geraldo's Now It Can Be Told, Larry King, All Things Considered, Nightwatch, Tony Brown's Journal, and the Voice of America. In 2014 Bolivia honored him for this work on the indigenous people of the Americas with the Order of the Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho, Antonio José Sucre and named him Honorary Cultural Ambassador of Bolivia’s Casa de Libertad in the Constitutional Capital Sucre, and honorary citizen of Potosí.
Since the late twentieth century, Weatherford has studied and published on the cultures and history of Mongolia. Most notably for his influential book Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, which debuted on the New York Times best-seller list in 2004 and helped reshape popular understanding of Mongol history.[4] His work has received widespread acclaim for challenging traditional Western narratives and bringing greater global awareness to Mongolia’s historical impact. In 2011, the book was named CNN's "Book of the Week", further solidifying its influence and reach.[5]
Weatherford’s contributions have been recognized with several prestigious honors. In 2006, he was awarded the Order of the Polar Star, Mongolia’s highest national honor. He received further recognition in 2010 with an honorary order from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia and a Medal from the President of Mongolia. In 2014, the Government of Bolivia awarded him the Order of Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho. Most notably, on November 24, 2022, Chinggis Khan’s birthday celebration in Mongolia, Weatherford became the first foreign recipient of the prestigious Order of Chinggis Khan, bestowed by the President of Mongolia.
Books
2024: Emperor of the Seas: Kublai Khan and the Making of China[6]
2010, "The Wrestler Princess", Lapham's Quarterly[12]
2006, "Restoring Order: Conquering Iraq in the 13th and 21st Centuries. Could Genghis Khan teach the US?", The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, January 7, 2006. The Los Angeles Times, December 29, 2006.[13]
2005, "The Women Who Ruled the Mongol Empire", Globalist Document - Global History, June 20, 2005
2000, "Peniaze a pad Rmmskej rm?e," OS: Fsrum Ob ianskej Spolo nosti, Bratislava, Slovakia, June
2000, "A Scholarly Quest to Understand Genghis Khan," The Chronicle of Higher Education, April 14, p.B10. Also serialized in The Mongol Messenger, April - 26 May 3, 2000
2000, "Blood on the Steppes: Ethnicity, Power, and Conflict in Central Asia," in Conformity and Conflict, James P. Spradley & David W. McCurdy (ed.), Boston: Little, Brown
1998, "Our Money, Our Selves," Anthropology Newsletter, April
1997, "Money and Change in World Perspective," General Anthropology, III-2, Spring
1996, "Impact of American Indian Civilizations on Europe and the World," in The Encyclopedia of the American Indian, Frederick E. Hoxie (ed.), Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company
1994, "Cultural Chaos and the Crisis of Civilization," Anthropology Newsletter, October
1994, "Kinship and Power on Capitol Hill," in Conformity and Conflict, James P. Spradley & David W. McCurdy (editors), Boston: Little, Brown & Co
1994, "Producing a Trade Book," in Media Anthropology: Informing Global Citizens, Susan L. Allen (editor), Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey
1993, "Cultural Castaways," Icarus, Summer, 11
1993, "Tribal Politics in Washington," Political and Legal Anthropology Review, Vol 16, #1
1992, "Wie die Indianer die Welt verdnderten," Entwicklung, Nr. 37, July
1991, "Indian Season in American Schools," The Social Studies
1987, "Cocaine and the economic deterioration of Bolivia," in Conformity and Conflict, James P. Spradley & David W. McCurdy (editors), Boston: Little, Brown & Co
1987, "Big Men on Capitol Hill," in Conformity and Conflict, James P. Spradley & David W. McCurdy (editors), Boston: Little, Brown & Co
1987, "Language in Political Anthropology," in Power and Discourse, Leah Kedar (editor), Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex Publishers
1987, "Tribes on the Hill: Kinship and Politics in the United States Congress," in Cultural Anthropology, Serena Nanda (ed.), Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing
1986, "Die Zerr|ttung Boliviens durch Kokain," Freibeuter 28
1986, "The Clans on Capitol Hill," in Contemporary Cultural Anthropology, Michael D. Howard, Boston: Little, Brown & Co
1981, "Labor and domestic life cycles in a German community," in Dimensions of an Anthropology of Aging, Christine L. Fry (editor), South Hadley, Mass: Bergin & Garvey
1980, "Life Cycle and the American Family," in Public Policy and the American Family, Z.I. Giraldo. Massachusetts: Lexington Books (D.C. Heath & Co.)
1980, "Age ethnicity in the American Family," with Carol Stack in Families and Older Persons, George L. Maddox, Illene C. Seigler & Dan Blazer (editors). Duke University: Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development
1980, "Millennium of Modernization," in Village Viability in Contemporary Society, P.C. Reining & Barbara Lenkerd (editors). AAAS Volume 31, Boulder, Colorado: Westview
1978, "Deutsche Kultur, amerikanish betrachtet," in Deutschland: Das Kind mit zwei Kvpfen, Hans C. Buch (editor), Berlin: Klaus Wagenbach Verlag. Reprint: Wahre Wohnung - Ware Wohnung, Bauvk-Papiere #40, Institut f|r Bauvkonomie, Univ. Stuttgart, 1982
1975, "Anthropology and Nannies," Man: Royal Anthropological Society, Vol 10, No. 2, June.
Book Reviews
1998, New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America, Colin G. Calloway, The William and Mary Quarterly
1997, Hamilton's Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt, John Steele Gordon, Civilization, February
1996, O Brave new Words! Native American Loanwords in Current English, Charles L. Cutler, Plains Anthropologist, May
1992, In the Spirit of the Earth: Rethinking History and Time, Calvin Martin Luther, Hungry Mind Review, Winter
1991, Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis, Renato Rosaldo, Native American Quarterly
1991, District Leaders, Rachel Sady, American Anthropologist, Vol 93, #3, September
1989, The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an Andean Community, Catherine Allen, Anthropological Quarterly
1989, Cocaine: White Gold Rush in Peru, Edmundo Morales, Anthropologica 31:1
1986, "Political birds of Guatemala," Hungry Mind Review, I
Newspapers, Magazines, Other Publications and Media
2025, "Jack Weatherford: Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire" Lex Fridman Podcast, July 31[14]
1999, "Mongolerna? svker sin plats i vdrldsekonomin," Dolly, April
1999, "The Mongols from the Silk Route to Cyberspace," Udriin Sonin, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, May 4
1998, "Cash in a Cul-De-Sac," Discover, October, 19, 10
1998, "Euron redan gammalmodig ndr pengarna blir digitala," Dolly, Stockholm, Sweden, August I, 1
1998, "Let Common Cents Prevail on Wall Street," The Wall Street Journal, March 26
1998, "Money Talks. Here's What It Says About Us," Washington Post, January 4
1997, "How Rome built a new ballpark," Star Tribune, February 9
1997, "The Plastic curtain," Washington Post, February 18
1997, "Dump Bronze Age bucks for electronic money," USA Today, April 24
1994, "Tribal people could teach us civilization," St. Paul Pioneer Press, March 17
1994, "US policy on rights hypocritical," Boston Herald, February 15
1994, "Captain Cook's Legacy," Los Angeles Times, January 18
1994, "What a year for the Natives," Minneapolis Star Tribune, January 21
1992, "The Grand Exchange Map," (Senior Consultant), National Geographic, February
1992, "Among the Gifts of Native America," Native Peoples, Fall
1992, "A Veterans Day salute to dreams deferred," San Francisco Examiner, November 9
1992, "Religious Freedom still eludes Native Americans," Star Tribune, February 20
1991, "Preserving our nation's past to protect its future," The Miami Herald, April 14
1990, "Image and Idea in Nonfiction," A View from the Loft, Vol 13, #2, September
1989, "Thanksgiving Menu Subject to Change," Detroit News, November 23
1989, "Honoring Columbus honors legacy of slave-trading, genocide," St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch, October 10
1989, "The real drug war is in the U.S.," Atlanta Constitution, September 27
1989, "Indians and the 4th," The Evening Sun, Baltimore, July 4
1988, "The World Owes a Debt to the Indian Givers," Detroit News, November 24. Also published as "American Indians were the World's Greatest Farmers," in Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 24
1981, "Capitol Hill Clans," The New York Times, December 13
1981, "Playing tribal politics in Congress," Rocky Mountain News, Denver, December 6
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