The Silk Roads: A New History of the World

In this sweeping and thought-provoking world history, Frankopan (history, Oxford Univ.; The First Crusade) shows that although the intertwined nature of the global economy seems unique to today, nations and markets have been connected since antiquity. The East, especially the Fertile Crescent area stretching from the Nile to the Persian Gulf, is time and again pivotal in making and breaking empires, civilizations, religions, and cultures. Networks of trade routes called Silk Roads have carried not only valuables such as spices, silk, gems, porcelain, and oil, but also slavery, terror, disease, and other misery through the ages. Frankopan relates stories of kings, emperors, marauders, and explorers, and also describes the effect of technological advances on warfare, use of natural resources, trade and daily life over millennia. Meticulous documentation ranges from first-person accounts to high-tech analysis of archaeological finds. The routes discussed in various chapters are illustrated by helpful maps.