The Silk Roads: A New History of the World (2015) is an account of the creation and importance of the trade route, called the Silk Road, from eastern Europe to central Asia and into India and China.
Frankopan redirects the current Western interest back to the past – the most famous of trade routes, the Silk Road. Even today, the Caucasus Region is endeavouring to reinvigorate its importance as a tourist and cultural route, as well as an international political hub.
In terms of geography, Frankopan begins with Persia (current day Iran) and the expansion of China; in terms of people, he begins with Alexander the Great – ‘an energetic founder of new cities’ – such as Herat, Kandahar, and Bagram in modern-day Afghanistan; and in terms of trade, he begins with silk.
It was not just people and products that flowed along the Silk Roads; it was also lifestyles, learning, ideas, governance, revolution, sin, sex, peace, conflict, religion, culture, the words of literature – and disease and death.
Frankopan covers 24 roads: faiths, Christian east, revolution, concord, furs, slaves, heaven, hell, death and destruction, gold, silver, northern Europe, empire, crisis, war, black gold, compromise, wheat, genocide, cold warfare, American Silk Road, superpower rivalry, catastrophe, and tragedy.
With the Silk Route entering a renaissance – and a re-emergence – this should be a comprehensive read, but it isn’t. It isn’t really a ‘new’ history, and it certainly isn’t a ‘history of the world’ because it only covers the countries along the Silk Route – and some of them only momentarily. It is also not a history of each of these countries. It is also too Eurocentric and Americancentric. He could have omitted the America Silk Road and superpower rivalry chapters, and tightened his focus on the direct route, with more emphasis on the Caucasus.
Frankopan’s book is mainly about trade. It is a dense book, but the categorization of trade items is odd. For example, spice and textiles are in the chapter, The Road to Heaven. Salt is not specified. Fashion and textiles are barely mentioned, and appear in the chapter, The Road of Death and Destruction. The language of trade is summed up in a sentence or two. Drugs? Weapons? Animals – where is the information on animals? Plants? What about plants? So there is nothing on plants and animals (except a brief mention of plants that are spices). In its ambitious focus, it fell short in some areas.
Nevertheless there are some interesting accounts of people movement – migration – across the route – as well as historical and geopolitical land ownership changes. It is extensive in its coverage of the history of roads, pathways, and networks that opened up land and sea routes – moreover for the patterns of economic and social movement. So, for some, there is some interesting material in Frankopan's book.
MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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