Take a photo of a barcode or cover
mediocre 's review for:
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
by Peter Frankopan
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.