Take a photo of a barcode or cover
osmosis 's review for:
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
by Peter Frankopan
I found this book hard to get into initially as it deals with ancient history and hundreds of years go by in a couple of pages of references to people I'd not heard of and places that no longer exist. The book started to grab me during the accounts of the crusades and particularly the passing of the baton from the British imperialists to the Americans and their interference in the middle east. As someone in their 30s, it was perhaps the first time for me to read about what seem like such recent recents such as the search for Osama Bin Laden and the second Gulf War from a historical perspective.
With regard to the modern end of this book, I found it very depressing as the connections made between blunders made in the past just seemed to repeat themselves over and over again just with different protagonists. In addition, as someone drawn to pacifism and against military expenditure, from reading this book it seems like such as stance leads to peril. This book gave me a much better understanding of how people from countries which have been so blatantly exploited such as Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan must feel towards their oppressors. In sum, if you want to realize just how unjust the world is, read "The Silk Roads".
With regard to the modern end of this book, I found it very depressing as the connections made between blunders made in the past just seemed to repeat themselves over and over again just with different protagonists. In addition, as someone drawn to pacifism and against military expenditure, from reading this book it seems like such as stance leads to peril. This book gave me a much better understanding of how people from countries which have been so blatantly exploited such as Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan must feel towards their oppressors. In sum, if you want to realize just how unjust the world is, read "The Silk Roads".