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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
DNF. Boring delivery. Facts upon facts one after the other with no sense of story. Might be good for a reference but difficult to read and digest for someone who wanted to learn about the silk roads in general.
informative
reflective
informative
medium-paced
I mistakenly thought this would be about the Silk Road as in the ancient trading route, but that was just the first 1/3 of the book, then it was 1500 and back to European and American history.
Covering two thousand years in 600 pages was a veritable fire-hose of facts, which made for very dense writing. Enjoyable reading here and there when the place slowed down enough to get a sense of atmosphere but otherwise a bit of a slog.
Covering two thousand years in 600 pages was a veritable fire-hose of facts, which made for very dense writing. Enjoyable reading here and there when the place slowed down enough to get a sense of atmosphere but otherwise a bit of a slog.
read this for my history class earlier this year. was solid but it did get kinda boring in the middle part
A genuinely fascinating history of the world as seen through the lens of the Middle East. There was so much I didn't know about this region and its past that I find it astonishing I ever thought I knew much history at all! I found the sections on the mid-18th century up to WW1 particularly interesting and was shocked at the way the brutal imperialism of the day still echoes around us: Anglo-Persian Oil was the first company to get a concession to drill in the Middle East and it's still around today under the name BP.
My only critique of the book would be that, in order to build the admittedly compelling narrative about the Silk Road countries being integral to all of world history, some things were elided. For example, it never really explains the Ottoman empire and it's collapse in favour of an argument about how Silk Road land led Hitler to invade Russia.
A hefty tome but well worth your time!
My only critique of the book would be that, in order to build the admittedly compelling narrative about the Silk Road countries being integral to all of world history, some things were elided. For example, it never really explains the Ottoman empire and it's collapse in favour of an argument about how Silk Road land led Hitler to invade Russia.
A hefty tome but well worth your time!
This books revolves about approximate of last 3000 years economic history of the world.
Religion, nationalism, racism and all that is placed secondary to the monetary importance of invasions, conquests, coups, and covert toppling of governments.
Starting from the Romans, to Persians, to Muslims, then the Mongols, Europeans, the British Empire, and lastly and still widely dominate Americans.
The book revolves around the movement of material, culture, languages, religion, inventions, and even wars and diseases staring from China to Egypt and from there to Southern Europe. And trade routes along the steppes around the Caspian and Aral sea through Anatolia to Eastern Europe. For about 1500 years these were the major blood vessels of the trade.
And then the formation of new silk roads, discovery of Americas, trade routes forming along the Africa and reaching India the far east. (however the Fareast has not been given a lot of importance in this book. China is as far as it goes with little on Korean peninsula and next to nothing on all other countries). The formation of empires and trading companies. The birth of imperialism and sea routes forming the new silk roads of the world. And that dominates the trade for about 600 years.
And then the last 5 chapters are dedicated to the great of High Asia between British and Russia. Persia being the pivot. Then it turns towards the involvement of America in the middle east and the effects of imperial thought in Greed for oil. It's long term effects in repercussions of short term gain thinking. The avalanche of events we are witness to today.
Religion, nationalism, racism and all that is placed secondary to the monetary importance of invasions, conquests, coups, and covert toppling of governments.
Starting from the Romans, to Persians, to Muslims, then the Mongols, Europeans, the British Empire, and lastly and still widely dominate Americans.
The book revolves around the movement of material, culture, languages, religion, inventions, and even wars and diseases staring from China to Egypt and from there to Southern Europe. And trade routes along the steppes around the Caspian and Aral sea through Anatolia to Eastern Europe. For about 1500 years these were the major blood vessels of the trade.
And then the formation of new silk roads, discovery of Americas, trade routes forming along the Africa and reaching India the far east. (however the Fareast has not been given a lot of importance in this book. China is as far as it goes with little on Korean peninsula and next to nothing on all other countries). The formation of empires and trading companies. The birth of imperialism and sea routes forming the new silk roads of the world. And that dominates the trade for about 600 years.
And then the last 5 chapters are dedicated to the great of High Asia between British and Russia. Persia being the pivot. Then it turns towards the involvement of America in the middle east and the effects of imperial thought in Greed for oil. It's long term effects in repercussions of short term gain thinking. The avalanche of events we are witness to today.
This book tries to do a lot--almost too much. It's primarily about how the Silk Road region's been intertwined with the Western world for centuries, so it's not really a history of that region. I did learn a lot, that said, there was a number of sections where I felt my head was spinning trying to keep it all straight--not sure if that's a criticism of the book or of my lack of understanding!
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
What happened?
'Well, first the earth cooled...'
Spanning from the beginning of civilisation to the recent conflicts in the Middle East and everything in between - and, very importantly, everything is connected. Many of the facts and moments in this book were already known to me (as they are with most people, I suppose), but stayed as an isolated moment in history in my head until this book placed it not only in context, but as part of a larger and coherent story. A story where the ancient Silk Roads were, and still are, at the center of the world.
The book paints a sweeping picture of rising and falling empires, upstart religions turning global, trade and money dominating world order, invasions, crusades, exploration of new worlds and new riches, great wars, right up to the English and Americans as puppet masters in the Middle East, trying to secure their control over the ancient Silk Roads. A sweeping picture indeed, but with a lot of details, quotes and facts to illustrate the cultures and events.
This book reads like playing a very elaborate game of Sid Meyer's Civilization. Only everything here actually happened.
(It's a good thing I'm good at geography - you need some good geographical sense, ideally a detailed map in your head or elsewhere to keep track of everything that's going on. There are some maps in the book, but these are sparse and rather rudimentary.)
A (rare) 5 stars from me.
'Well, first the earth cooled...'
Spanning from the beginning of civilisation to the recent conflicts in the Middle East and everything in between - and, very importantly, everything is connected. Many of the facts and moments in this book were already known to me (as they are with most people, I suppose), but stayed as an isolated moment in history in my head until this book placed it not only in context, but as part of a larger and coherent story. A story where the ancient Silk Roads were, and still are, at the center of the world.
The book paints a sweeping picture of rising and falling empires, upstart religions turning global, trade and money dominating world order, invasions, crusades, exploration of new worlds and new riches, great wars, right up to the English and Americans as puppet masters in the Middle East, trying to secure their control over the ancient Silk Roads. A sweeping picture indeed, but with a lot of details, quotes and facts to illustrate the cultures and events.
This book reads like playing a very elaborate game of Sid Meyer's Civilization. Only everything here actually happened.
(It's a good thing I'm good at geography - you need some good geographical sense, ideally a detailed map in your head or elsewhere to keep track of everything that's going on. There are some maps in the book, but these are sparse and rather rudimentary.)
A (rare) 5 stars from me.