A major reassessment of world history in light of the economic and political renaissance in the re-emerging east - and a fascinating rediscovery of the seductive cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, Isfahan and Constantinople.
The sun is setting on the Western world. Slowly but surely, the direction in which the world spins has reversed: where for the last five centuries the globe turned westwards on its axis, it now turns to the east.
For centuries, fame and fortune were to be found in the west - in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of riches and adventure. Sweeping right across Central Asia and deep into China and India, a region that once took centre stage is again rising to dominate global politics, commerce and culture.
A major reassessment of world history, The Silk Roads is a dazzling exploration of the forces that have driven the rise and fall of empires, determined the flow of ideas and goods and are now heralding a new dawn in international affairs.
About the Author
Peter Frankopan is Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford, and Director the Centre for Byzantine Research at Oxford University. He took a First in History and was Schiff Scholar at Jesus College, Cambridge, before completing his doctorate at Oxford, where he was Senior Scholar at Corpus Christi College. He has lectured at leading universities all over the world, including Cambridge, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, NYU, King's College London and the Institute of Historical Research. His revised translation of The Alexiad by Anna Komnene was published in 2009 and The First Crusade was published in 2012.
Industry Reviews
The axis of history writing seemed to shift east with Frankopan's sweeping history, which placed the Silk Road at the very centre of world events -- Books of the Decade * Sunday Times *
Many books have been written which claim to be "A New History of the World". This one fully deserves the title...It is difficult, in a short review, to do justice to a book so ambitious, so detailed and so fascinating as this one -- Gerald DeGroot * The Times *
A book that roves as widely as the geography it describes, encompassing worlds as far removed as those of Herodotus and Saddam Hussein, Hammurabi and Hitler...It is a tribute to Frankopan's scholarship and mastery of sources in multiple languages that he is as sure-footed on the ancient world as he is on the medieval and modern -- Justin Marozzi * Sunday Times *
My book of the year: history on a grand scale, with a sweep of ambition that is rare ... A remarkable book on many levels, and one that anyone would have been proud to write: a proper historical epic of dazzling range, ambition and achievement -- William Dalrymple * Observer *
The most illuminating book of the year ... A healthy antidote to Eurocentric accounts of history -- Books of the Year * Times Literary Supplement *
Splendid ... tightly researched ... invigorating and profound with enough storytelling to excite the reader and enough fresh scholarship to satisfy the intellect...charismatic and essential -- Bettany Hughes * Daily Telegraph *
A rare book that makes you question your assumptions about the world * Wall Street Journal *
Dazzlingly good * Evening Standard *
Based on astonishingly wide and deep reading and in all areas draws on the latest research... It is full of vivid and recondite details * Independent *
Full of intriguing insights and fascinating details * Observer *
With extraordinary erudition and a vivid style, he takes us on a dazzling tour of these parts from the rise of the first empires right through to the present * Open (Weekly) *
Beautifully constructed, a terrific and exhilarating read and a new perspective on world history -- Averil Cameron * History Today *
As well-written, entertaining, disturbing and exciting as a detective story * Svenska Dagbladet *
A dazzling piece of historical writing * South China Morning Post *
This book lives up to its claim to be a new history of the world because of its geopolitical paradigm shift ... He is a Herodotus of the twenty first century * Irish Left Review *
Monumental...prodigious...astonishing. Frankopan is an exhilarating companion for the journey along the routes which conveyed silk, slaves, ideas, religion, and disease, and around which today may hang the destiny of the world * Vanity Fair *
An exceptional storyteller ... Frankopan does a superb job of explaining the history that has led to this modern era of new Silk Roads running across "the spine of Asia."... Frankopan's book will be indispensable to anyone who wants to make sense of this union of past and present * Dallas Morning News *
Sumptuous, intriguing and surprising -- Sir Paddy Ashdown
'A big book like this would have taken the whole year to read if I had followed up every reference that piqued my interest' -- Readers' Books of the Year 2016 * Guardian *
