‘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
In this revelatory book, Peter Frankopan makes the case for a major re-evaluation of world history – one focused not on Europe but on central Asia, where East meets West. In The Silk Roads, the zone between the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Himalayas emerges as a birthplace of civilisations, empires and religions. From here, the ancient routes of the title – ‘the world’s central nervous system’ – spread not only trade, but scientific knowledge, slaves, disease and marauding armies. Frankopan shows how the Silk Roads brought about a profoundly interconnected world, where ripples created by events in Baghdad could be felt in Scandinavia. And he shows the region’s global significance is rising again, in a time when China’s Belt and Road Initiative is creating new Silk Roads with a global reach. Frankopan brings the narrative up to date in a new introduction to this Folio edition, which includes a superb range of photography: 64 full pages, from paintings and ancient artefacts to modern architecture and photojournalism. A number-one bestseller, The Silk Roads sets out a compelling alternative to familiar Western narratives on global history. An edition signed by Peter Frankopan is also available.
