Book Review: The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan

“The age of empire and the rise of the west were built on the capacity to inflict violence on a major scale. The Enlightenment and the Age of Reason, the progression towards democracy, civil liberty and human rights, were not the result of an unseen chain linking back to Athens in antiquity or a natural state of affairs in Europe; they were the fruits of political, military and economic success in faraway continents.”

The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan challenges conventional Eurocentric narratives by revealing how global history, trade, and exchange formed the bedrock for the modern world.  This perspective challenges the notion of Western progress as an isolated or inevitable phenomenon, situating it instead within the interconnected histories of empire, trade, conquest, and genocide.  

The Silk Roads is a deceptive title for a profound book. While the title evokes images of ancient trade routes, the book encompasses far more. It places ancient global dynamics revealing the enduring interconnectedness of civilizations and the forces shaping our world. 

Initial chapters of the book focus on the origins of the Silk Road as ancient commercial and cultural networks. They further dwell into how religions, revolutionary ideas, alliances and beliefs traversed the Silk Road, shaping societies across continents. The book gives a glance on the rise of key cities like Minsk, Kyiv, and Novgorod adds a crucial dimension to The Silk Roads. Frankopan delves deeply into how "military might, careful administration, low taxes and religious tolerance created the bedrock of the Mongol Empire."

Peter Frankopan goes on to discuss the commerce that is against the concept of modern society i.e. the movement of enslaved peoples and the impact of slavery on societies. The word "slave" is historically derived from the ethnonym "Slav," referring to the Slavic peoples. In the 8th and 9th centuries when many Slavs were captured and enslaved by Byzantines, Avars, Germanic tribes, and other groups during medieval wars and raids, leading to their ethnonym becoming synonymous with "slave" in Europe. 

The book further analyses the fur trade, oil (black gold), agricultural trade, gold and silver trade’s influence on power, politics, and global economies.  This trade affected the rise and fall of empires fueled by Silk Road wealth and connectivity. The last chapters deal with the Silk Road’s role during modern geopolitical tensions and America’s involvement and via Silk Road-inspired connections. Silk Road was once world's nervous system with the strategic geolocation of the Countries of the Silk Roads (from the Western borders of China to the Mediterranean Sea) has a historical ring. The 21st Century Silk Roads is what BRI is all about.

The book is vast in scope, profound in insight, and deeply philosophical in its approach. It is not merely a must-read—it demands multiple readings. The immense canvas the author unfolds can be overwhelming, yet this remains one of the finest and most illuminating treatises ever written on the idea of the Silk Road.