The Silk Roads

A New History of the World

By: Peter Frankopan

Narrated by: Mike Grady

Length: 25 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's summary

Bloomsbury presents The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan, read by Mike Grady.

The No. 1 Sunday Times and international bestseller—a major reassessment of world history in light of the economic and political renaissance in the re-emerging east

For centuries, fame and fortune was to be found in the west—in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of adventure and riches. The region stretching from eastern Europe and sweeping right across Central Asia deep into China and India, is taking centre stage in international politics, commerce and culture—and is shaping the modern world.

This region, the true centre of the earth, is obscure to many in the English-speaking world. Yet this is where civilization itself began, where the world’s great religions were born and took root. The Silk Roads were no exotic series of connections, but networks that linked continents and oceans together. Along them flowed ideas, goods, disease and death. This was where empires were won—and where they were lost. As a new era emerges, the patterns of exchange are mirroring those that have criss-crossed Asia for millennia. The Silk Roads are rising again.

A major reassessment of world history, The Silk Roads is an important account of the forces that have shaped the global economy and the political renaissance in the re-emerging east.

©2015 Peter Frankopan (P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Critic reviews

"Brilliant and fearlessly wide-ranging." (Guardian, Books of the Year)

"Breathtaking and addictively readable." (Daily Telegraph, History Book of the Year)

"Dazzlingly good." (Evening Standard)

Great to listen to in the background

Not really heavy in terms of the content, so its not hard to follow, but well narrated. Enjoyed listening to it while traveling and going on walks etc.

Fascinating and revelatory.

It's easy to see why this book has ruffled a few feathers. That's why I enjoyed it. It took me out of my 'western supremacist' view of the world and presented a well researched, alternative view. Thank you Mr Frankopan.

Disappointing, it only speaks about the views from Central Asia in the last 30 min

It is a very well researched book, but it is still very much from the Western point of view.
Or Russia/USSR at best. Nothing about all the other countries of Central Asia, of which we still know so little.
The only attempt at doing that is during the last 30 minutes of the book.

Lacked focus and analysis

The book was great except going into way too much detail at times and including a lot of things which had a very distant connection to the silk roads. It felt more like an overview of the history of the world since the start of the silk roads.