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"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, Peter Frankopan realigns the world, orientating us eastwards, and illuminating how even the rise of the West 500 years ago resulted from its efforts to gain access to and control these Eurasian trading networks. In an increasingly globalized planet, where current events in Asia and the Middle East dominate the world's attention, this magnificent work of history is very much a work of our times"--… (more)
Peter Frankopan's "The Silk Road" is a magnificent book, even though I believe the title is a misnomer. The book starts in Central Asia, and while he mentions China and India briefly throughout the narrative, he does so more as an aside rather than making them the book's center. In my assessment, he made a conscious strategic decision to make Central Asia the book's centerpiece. In today's politically charged atmosphere, we forget (or ignore) Central Asia's contribution to world history, culture, science, and the arts. For instance, I read that the Middle East discovered philosophers like Aristotle and then exported their philosophy back to Europe. The Middle East also acted as a bridge between the East (Indians, for instance, developed critical concepts in mathematics and astronomy) and the West. I did not know of the Western role in wanting to take over Iran's geographical and industrial assets, especially in the troubled years following World War II. I did not know of how the "Rus" rose, nor was I aware of how the Norsemen created systems (including the use of slave labor) to create enduring legacies. The author used the concept of roads in developing the book's narrative, creating a smooth flow from one stage of the journey to the next. In this way, he brought several strands of history together in a seamless narrative. History is not static. Events take place, and power equations change, sometimes causing turbulence and, at other times, not. Peter Frankopan ends the book by concluding the world is changing once again. The power center moved from Central/Eastern/South Asia to the Western world and is now moving back again. The book will educate you, and Peter Frankopan achieves this objective with this engaging narrative. ( )
An enlightening perspective on history that focuses on connections that expand the definition of value, usually to the detriment of the new colonised cultures but driving a sort of distruptive transformation which leads to new social structures, not better but more complex, perhaps... ( )
Less than a history of the Silk Road per se, but rather a fresh history of the world. Unbiased and bold. It also provides a lot of new sources. Recommended. ( )
Some interesting facts, but unfortunately without a context. The book was often quite dragging to read, because it felt I was reading a list of people and dates with no idea who was who and how they were connected. There was some attempt to that, I admit, but in the end too much was included and in the end I remembered nothing of what I just read. There should have been an overarching, and more specific, theme to build a story around. Now the book was too big and too general, at least for a reader like me. ( )
We halted in the country of a tribe of Turks...we saw a group who worship snakes, a group who worship fish, and a group who worship cranes. --Ibn Fadlan's Voyage to the Volga Bughars
I, Prester John, am the lord of lords, and I surpass all the kings of the entire world in wealth, virtue and power...Milk and honey flow freely in our lands; poison can do no harm, nor do any noisy frogs croak. There are no scorpions, no serpents creeping in the grass. --Purported letter of Prester John to Rome and Constatinople, twelfth century
He has a very large palace, entirely roofed with fine gold. --Christopher Columbus' research notes on the Great Khan of the East, late fifteenth century
If we do not make relatively small sacrifices, and alter our policy, in Persia now, we shall both endanger our friendship with Russia and find in a comparatively near future...a situation where our very existence as an Empire will be a stake. --Sir George Clerk to Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary, 21 July 1914
The president would win even if we sat around doing nothing. --Chief of Staff to Nursultan Nazarbayev, President of Kazakhstaan, shortly before 2005 elections.
Dedication
To Katarina, Flora, Francis and Luke
First words
Preface: As a child, one of my most prized possessions was a large map of the world.
"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, Peter Frankopan realigns the world, orientating us eastwards, and illuminating how even the rise of the West 500 years ago resulted from its efforts to gain access to and control these Eurasian trading networks. In an increasingly globalized planet, where current events in Asia and the Middle East dominate the world's attention, this magnificent work of history is very much a work of our times"--
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In my assessment, he made a conscious strategic decision to make Central Asia the book's centerpiece. In today's politically charged atmosphere, we forget (or ignore) Central Asia's contribution to world history, culture, science, and the arts.
For instance, I read that the Middle East discovered philosophers like Aristotle and then exported their philosophy back to Europe. The Middle East also acted as a bridge between the East (Indians, for instance, developed critical concepts in mathematics and astronomy) and the West.
I did not know of the Western role in wanting to take over Iran's geographical and industrial assets, especially in the troubled years following World War II. I did not know of how the "Rus" rose, nor was I aware of how the Norsemen created systems (including the use of slave labor) to create enduring legacies.
The author used the concept of roads in developing the book's narrative, creating a smooth flow from one stage of the journey to the next. In this way, he brought several strands of history together in a seamless narrative.
History is not static. Events take place, and power equations change, sometimes causing turbulence and, at other times, not.
Peter Frankopan ends the book by concluding the world is changing once again. The power center moved from Central/Eastern/South Asia to the Western world and is now moving back again.
The book will educate you, and Peter Frankopan achieves this objective with this engaging narrative. (