The Silk Roads
The extraordinary history that created your world – Illustrated Edition
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
Set your sails east with this stunningly original new history of the world.
Peter Frankopan, number one bestselling author and historian explores the connections made by people, trade, disease, war, religion, adventure, science and technology in this extraordinary book about how the east married the west with a remarkable voyage at its heart – the journey along the Silk Roads.
From ancient world laws laid down by King Hammurabi and the mighty Persian empire, to terrifying huns, the rise of Europe, two world wars and politics today, The Silk Roads moves through time and history sewing together the threads from different peoples, empires and continents into a phenomenal history of the globe.
With stories from each and every corner of society, Frankopan's magnificent brand new text based on his literary triumph The Silk Roads, sumptuously illustrated by Neil Packer, is a must-have world history.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This volume provides a conceptual view of world history by way of the silk roads. Equal parts symbolic and literal, the roads trace the flow and exchange of ideas, culture, and commerce. Packer's illustrations include maps as well as mythical and abstract representations of objects, armies, and individuals from antiquity to modern day. Frankopan explores the expansion of religious beliefs in the ancient world and discusses how "the Road to New Worlds" resulted in the spread of European ideals and technology to North America (and in "astonishing cruelty" toward indigenous people). Later chapters focus on the roads to world wars, Middle Eastern conflicts, the civil rights movement, and the fall of apartheid. The past need not be seen as linear or chronological, Frankopan conveys, but rather as an intersection of ever-evolving human experiences. Ages 10 14.
