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moscat 's review for:
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
by Peter Frankopan
DNF @ 75%
I mostly enjoyed the first half of this book. It focused on the geographical region of the silk roads and the relationship between Europe and Asia but with the weight moreso on Asia than other histories of the period.
As time goes on and Europe becomes the more dominant centre of power this just becomes a big standard world history. The "Silk Road" becomes something more conceptual the author can apply to whatever flow of trade he's talking about. We go for chapters barely hearing about the Ottoman Empire or China or any of the former powers in the Middle East.
Cut the latter half of this book entirely (and edit the first somewhat) and you have an interesting history of the world up until the 16th Century that isn't so Eurocentric. The rest wholly centres the European (and subsequently American) powers. Which is fine, they were pretty important! But when your book opens with the idea that we neglect to centre Asian and Arabian powers in our history it feels like a bait and switch to give them lip service for half the book and justify it by saying "X was America/Britain/Germany/the Dutch's new Silk Road".
Also the accents used for quotes in the audiobook feel pretty problematic. There's a chunk in the middle where they seem to stop, like someone passed a memo, but they creep back in.
I mostly enjoyed the first half of this book. It focused on the geographical region of the silk roads and the relationship between Europe and Asia but with the weight moreso on Asia than other histories of the period.
As time goes on and Europe becomes the more dominant centre of power this just becomes a big standard world history. The "Silk Road" becomes something more conceptual the author can apply to whatever flow of trade he's talking about. We go for chapters barely hearing about the Ottoman Empire or China or any of the former powers in the Middle East.
Cut the latter half of this book entirely (and edit the first somewhat) and you have an interesting history of the world up until the 16th Century that isn't so Eurocentric. The rest wholly centres the European (and subsequently American) powers. Which is fine, they were pretty important! But when your book opens with the idea that we neglect to centre Asian and Arabian powers in our history it feels like a bait and switch to give them lip service for half the book and justify it by saying "X was America/Britain/Germany/the Dutch's new Silk Road".
Also the accents used for quotes in the audiobook feel pretty problematic. There's a chunk in the middle where they seem to stop, like someone passed a memo, but they creep back in.