Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings. By Jared Diamond(贾雷德·戴蒙德，美国著名跨学科学者). Mariner Books; 288 pages; $32. Allen Lane; £25
《利润、先知、教练与国王》，贾雷德·戴蒙德著。Mariner Books出版，288页，32美元；Allen Lane出版，25英镑。
To conquer so much of Eurasia(欧亚大陆) so quickly, Genghis Khan(成吉思汗，蒙古帝国奠基人) must have been a pretty decisive chap. Today macho(大男子气概的) executives striving to build empires(努力建立帝国) sometimes wish he had left behind a book of leadership tips. What would Genghis do about that underperforming sales team? Alas, bar the odd (and possibly apocryphal(杜撰的，不足凭信的)) quote about the joy of making widows weep, the mighty Mongol’s insights are lost.
能在如此短的时间内征服欧亚大陆的大片土地，成吉思汗想必是个相当果断的家伙。如今，那些一心想建立商业帝国的硬汉高管们，有时会希望他留下过一本领导力指南。面对那支业绩不佳的销售团队，成吉思汗会怎么做？可惜，除了那句关于“让寡妇哭泣之乐”的零星（且可能是杜撰的）名言之外，这位强大的蒙古人的洞见已经失传了。
In any case, they might not be terribly useful. Genghis would have ascribe(把……归因于)d his success to courage, horsemanship(骑术) and strategic genius. Actually, it was the weather, argues Jared Diamond, a Pulitzer-prizewinning historian. Analysis of tree rings on the Mongolian steppe(草原，干草原) reveals that the period of Genghis’s rise was unusually wet. More rain meant more grass, more sheep’s milk to nourish warriors and more spare horses to make the horde(游牧部落；一大群) so devastatingly mobile. Had he been born 20 years earlier or 200 miles farther south, he might have been just another warlord.(如果他早出生20年，或者出生在往南200英里的地方，他可能只是又一个军阀。) “Without knowing it (because he wasn’t a tree-ring dendrochronologist(树木年轮学家)), Genghis had the good fortune to be born at the right time and place,” writes Dr Diamond.
无论如何，这些洞见也许并不那么有用。成吉思汗会把他的成功归因于勇气、骑术和战略天才。但贾雷德·戴蒙德——这位普利策奖得主历史学家——认为，真正的原因是天气。对蒙古草原树木年轮的分析显示，成吉思汗崛起的那段时期异常湿润。雨水多意味着草多，意味着有更多羊奶滋养战士，也有更多备用马匹，使蒙古大军拥有毁灭性的机动能力。如果他早出生20年，或者出生在往南200英里的地方，他可能只是又一个军阀。戴蒙德博士写道：“成吉思汗在不知不觉中（因为他不是树木年轮学家）有幸出生在了正确的时间和地点。”