Silk Roads

A New History of the World

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Peter Frankopan: Silk Roads (2015, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc)

English language

Published Nov. 10, 2015 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

ISBN:
978-1-4088-3996-6
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4 stars (3 reviews)

"Our world was made on and by the Silk Roads. For millennia it was here that East and West encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas and cultures, the birth of the world's great religions, the appetites for foreign goods that drove economies and the growth of nations. From the first cities in Mesopotamia to the growth of Greece and Rome to the depredations by the Mongols and the Black Death to the Great Game and the fall of Communism, the fate of the West has always been inextricably linked to the East. The Silk Roads vividly captures the importance of the networks that crisscrossed the spine of Asia and linked the Atlantic with the Pacific, the Mediterranean with India, America with the Persian Gulf. By way of events as disparate as the American Revolution and the horrific world wars of the twentieth century, …

12 editions

Review of 'Silk Roads' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

It has been suggested, for instance, that the Mahābhārata, the great early Sanskrit epic, owes a debt to the Iliad and to the Odyssey, with the theme of the abduction of Lady Sita by Rāvaa a direct echo of the elopement of Helen with Paris of Troy.

It is supposed to be Rāmāyana, not Mahābhārata. Mistakes like this, and that also in the first few pages made me skeptical about the quality of this book.Beyond that, I found this book enlightening. Writing a history based on how businesses have been made (and related things like coercion and war) is a very refreshing read.





Subjects

  • World history
  • Trade routes
  • East and west
  • Imperialism
  • Acculturation
  • Culture conflict
  • Silk road