University of California Press, 1987. — 278 p.
Using a mixture of Chinese, Persian, and Russian sources, Allsen reconstructs the reign of Mongke, the last ruler of a unified Mongol empire. The central underlying theme of this book is that Mongke was an extremely pragmatic ruler who used policies that appealed to both conservative Mongol elites and newly subjugated Chinese literati in order to mobilize the resources of the empire to undertake further conquests. However, the Mongol Empire was already beginning to fracture under his reign and was being held together only loosely. After Mongke’s death, it would fracture permanently into four independent khanates.