The New Silk Roads: The New Asia and the Remaking of the World Order

By Peter Frankopan

From the bestselling author of The Silk Roads comes an updated, timely, and visionary book about the dramatic and profound changes our world is undergoing right now—as seen from the perspective of the rising powers of the East.  

"All roads used to lead to Rome. Today they lead to Beijing." So argues Peter Frankopan in this revelatory new book.

In the age of Brexit and Trump, the West is buffeted by the tides of isolationism and fragmentation. Yet to the East, this is a moment of optimism as a new network of relationships takes shape along the ancient trade routes. In The New Silk Roads, Peter Frankopan takes us on an eye-opening journey through the region, from China's breathtaking infrastructure investments to the flood of trade deals among Central Asian republics to the growing rapprochement between Turkey and Russia. This important book asks us to put aside our preconceptions and see the world from a new—and ultimately hopeful—perspective.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Mar 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9780525656418

Peter Frankopan

Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at Oxford University and Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, published by Bloomsbury in 2015, was a No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller and remained in the top 10 for nine months after publication. It was named one of the 'Books of the Decade' 2010–2020 by the Sunday Times. The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World was published by Bloomsbury in 2018 and won the Human Sciences prize of the Carical Foundation in 2019.

Reviews for The New Silk Roads

[malexmave · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent history book that retells world history as seen from the east, and understood over the connections between cities and countries (i.e., mostly trade). The first three quarters were highly interesting. The last quarter, once it reached world war 2 and especially the aftermath, were still interesting but fell off a bit, because it became more familiar, but all in all, I still highly recommend this book (and am actually giving it as a gift for christmas).

[nova_mjohnson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An overview of the history of the areas that comprised the old Silk Roads - Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, former Soviet republics, and more. Very in-depth and does a good job of summarizing the history of a region that most do not learn about in school. Does not hesitate to speak truthfully about the West’s imperial history, but also does not always criticize the region as it should be at times. Slightly repetitive at times and could have been edited down slightly. A good history on a not widely known subject.

[steve38 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good but flawed effort. Subtitled 'A New History of the World' it is an attempt by a British author to tell the history of the world not from the usual standpoint of Britain and Europe but from that of 'the centre of the world'. Those countries of central Asia that were linked by the Silk Road.The author starts well in pre and early history by emphasising the richness, cultural superiority and innovation of the region compared with the backward, poverty stricken, remote Europe. He maintains his focus as Europe comes more onto the seen in the early middle ages. But he loses sight of what he set out to achieve once Columbus and the American continent arrive on the scene and the British begin to build an empire in Asia. The book then becomes a more standard history from a European, transatlantic point of view and their interests in the region. The long section towars the end on the Iran/Iraq war and western interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq are interesting but overdone.The author almost completely ignores China. It is mentioned of course but only incidentally as a source of goods transitting central Asia on their way to European markets. As a historian he should have included more geography. Information about populations, climates and transport systems are cursory.A good effort but Mr Frankopan lost sight of his objectives as he progressed through the ages.

[elimatta_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A specialist in Western Asia history argues that western Asia was and is the centre of the world. Oddly balanced too in that China is only a part-player in this book until the final chapter. Also odd that in the last chapter there is so much emphasis on fossil fuel wealth in western Asia and its future, when fossil fuel is so obviously of declining importance due to its impact on climate change. And after rushing through the human rights and other horrors of the various Stan states, he describes such criticisms as being just the sort of thing the west says.Synthetic histories like this (those based in syntheses of the works of others as well as the author’s own) require a special skill, particularly when they carry a strong thesis. This is a wonderful book with strengths in both breadth and depth, yet the balance seems a bit off.

[sriram_shankar_8 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A very Middle East centric view of the world.Short on details of the ancient world. Very heavy on details of events whose sources are more easily available - from the 1900s onwards.

[jbennett_733672 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I thoroughly enjoyed this history, of the world really, focussed on the peoples, wars and trade along the Silk Route. The author broadens the perspective showing for instance how exploration of South America affected trade to the east. Whilst I probably didn't pay quite enough attention to the earlier history and didn't quite keep track of who was who, I found the twentieth century history fascinating.

[johnwbeha · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a very ambitious book, as it sets out to tell the whole history of the world from the perspective of the lands under "Silk Roads" that run through Asia. The subject itself is probably too broad for any historian to succeed. Of necessity he has to skim over many events and periods, particularly when the West becomes involved after Vasco de Gama, because so much is going on. The writing style makes it relatively easy to read, although a certain amount of hopping between times and places sometimes make it difficult to follow. One message that comes through very clearly is that the West [including Russia] should never have become involved in Afghanistan in the twntieth century and beyond, whatever the justification. We should have learned our lessons from the past! We all know that there is shift in economic power from West to East going on; this book helps us to understand it.

[breic-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This is a completely bland world history focused as usual on Western Europe. It skims along the surface from Christopher Columbus to modern American politics, missing China and the Middle East. I cannot understand how it was ever published. The book has very little to do with the shoehorned title, "Silk Roads," except the chapters are awkwardly named "Road of X, Y or Z". The author is nearly economically illiterate. Wildly digressive, there's little insight, lots of footnotes, zero editing.

[mbmackay · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is interesting book, but the basic structure - linking a large part of the world's history to the concept of the Silk Road is overblown and misleading.It was the Silk Road that sucked me in - the very idea of ancient trade links across Asia linking China to Europe is full of exotic potential, but in the end it was the artificiality of trying to link disparate episodes in history to the "Silk Roads" that left me disappointed. As one example - the actions of the British and the Americans in the first part of the 20th century in Iraq and Iran to assure oil supplies. Frankopan tells this, and other episodes very well, with vigour and strong opinions, but the link to Silk Roads is tenuous.So, good writing, good history, full of interesting insights, but ultimately a little disappointing because the book does not fulfil its stated purpose.As an aside, the publication of this ebook is poor. The font used in the e-text is unable to deal with the diacritical marks used in the original text, and some jury-rigged fix has been attempted by inserted what seem to be small images of the accented letters. Besides being hard to see and harder to read, this means that you cannot use word search for words with an accent.As a second aside, the book lacks maps. There are a few maps, but these are too small and lack the information needed to help the reader. The author says in the introduction that he wants to improve general knowledge of the history of this fascinating region. As a first step he should get his publisher on board and improve the range and detail of the maps.Read ebook Feb 2016

[joe73-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a tough book. Some brilliant information and assumptions. The author puts together a system of describing the way trade and religion from the Ancient world shaped history. At times is surely seems like he has a deep disdain for the western culture. But just when you think that, he turns around and puts the peoples of Persia, the Middle East and India on the stand. History is violent and that is just the way it is. No ancient culture on our radar of the past got where they were going without slaughter, slavery and greed. Violence is in our DNA....we as humans will never escape it. Luckily for us as people, we have shed some of those facets. The desire to have more than the person next to us. That is just the way it is. Mr. Frankopan brilliantly puts that out there. This is a hard read though.. many times I have wanted to just close it and grab something else. But it has some great info in it. Of course one should not take it for gospel. Just like any good history book it should be cross referenced. I can't help but wonder though. Did the writer even attempt to consider the US Civil War. Since he wanted to tote on slavery, that event should have received way more attention lots of interesting things could have been said about the fur trade in North America. The paragraph on Russia's attempt to colonize Alaska a was way too brief. There are a ton of facets the author could have explored if he were not to busy vilifying everyone in the world with the exception of the Middle East. Many things have linked the world together. The Middle East is not the be all end all of everything. I see his point. But the book apparently has an agenda. For a writer of history that puts one in a bad place.

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

World history from the perspective of Persia and environs being, largely, the axis around which everything turns. Most of the time, Western Europe was a weird backwater as power shifted. Another lesson: all empires die; the US is doing about as much flailing as others following the same pattern. Because the story is so big, there are only broad strokes but that does give the impression of a wide stage for historical figures to play on.

[pierthinker · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Most modern narrative history focuses on the familiar tropes of Western civilisation - the early civilisations in the eastern Mediterranean leading to classical Greece, then Rome and then the expansion of Europe (and, by extension, the Americas) as the motor of global development and expansion. There are some voices that offer different perspectives on world history and ‘The Silk Roads’ by Peter Frankopan is one such.Frankopan centres his story on the swathe of geography running from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean through to India and China (south of the Caspian and Aral Seas, north of the Persian Gulf). He contends that is these societies and nations, interacting through trade and conquest, that drove the development of human civilisation and that it is only in the last few hundred years that Europe and Western civilisation have come to dominate. In closing, Frankopan believes that even now the focus is swinging away from the West and back to the East and Eurasian states as the fulcrum of world affairs.This is a powerfully written narrative that drives the (Western) reader through a largely unknown set of geographies, peoples, cultures and historical events.I remain unconvinced that the Eastern/Eurasian civilisations are the true heart of world history and human development, with the western, European focus tagged on at the end. I also found the final chapters describing the impact of European empires and politics on Eastern states in the 20th century a little too quick to blame the West and portray the East as unfortunate pawns in some game. I am sure to some extent this is true, but the nations of central Asia must take some responsibility for the calamities of the last 100 years.Highly recommended as a different perspective on the development of human civilisation

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an interesting encouragement to look more eastern-wards for a greater appreciation of what happened during history. During my degree I did study Classical Civilization and often wondered why we only studied Roman and Greek History and not Persian, Indian, Chinese and Egyptian history more during the course, and I commented during my History lectures on the Crusades that it was more about money and trade than religion, which got laughs from my fellow students and correction from the lecturer on their assumptions (I felt very vindicated); so in ways this isn't my book (singing to the choir comes to mind), this is a book for people who don't seem to think that there is anything that has come out of the middle east except terrorists, but unfortunately people who believe these things don't tend to believe that this is a book for them.This is a book that looks at how influential parts of the world dismissed by people were on actual history, not only of their own countries but on the world and how ignoring those influences is toxic, a reducio ad absurdam of reality.However it also dismisses certain other almost insignificant moments that became significant, like the influence Irish Nationalism had on nationalism in other colonies and how other colonies avoided the shambles of a rising like our 1916 one. But in ways I'm nitpicking, I'm from a western country, with western history at the fore and I grew up with a fairly insular view of history from textbooks that was very Ireland centric and tended to blame England for most of what happened to us but I had a cynical view of that idea.Yes, we need a more holistic view of history, but it's a hard task for anyone, history will always be filtered by experience, knowledge, access to information and upbringing, bias can be acknowledged but will always creep in, the trick is to understand that it will always be there.

[jhemlock-1711 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a tough book. Some brilliant information and assumptions. The author puts together a system of describing the way trade and religion from the Ancient world shaped history. At times is surely seems like he has a deep disdain for the western culture. But just when you think that, he turns around and puts the peoples of Persia, the Middle East and India on the stand. History is violent and that is just the way it is. No ancient culture on our radar of the past got where they were going without slaughter, slavery and greed. Violence is in our DNA....we as humans will never escape it. Luckily for us as people, we have shed some of those facets. The desire to have more than the person next to us. That is just the way it is. Mr. Frankopan brilliantly puts that out there. This is a hard read though.. many times I have wanted to just close it and grab something else. But it has some great info in it. Of course one should not take it for gospel. Just like any good history book it should be cross referenced. I can't help but wonder though. Did the writer even attempt to consider the US Civil War. Since he wanted to tote on slavery, that event should have received way more attention lots of interesting things could have been said about the fur trade in North America. The paragraph on Russia's attempt to colonize Alaska a was way too brief. There are a ton of facets the author could have explored if he were not to busy vilifying everyone in the world with the exception of the Middle East. Many things have linked the world together. The Middle East is not the be all end all of everything. I see his point. But the book apparently has an agenda. For a writer of history that puts one in a bad place.

[paul_s-289480 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The author bears some strange grudge against the European civilisation but even with his critical approach he can't deny its historical record. The way he portrays the Mongol invasion as some enlightened state building is sharply contrasted with the awful empire building perpetrated by European states. Not convinced this is a fair description.

[charlie68_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good if wordy history of the silk road region, roughly the Middle East, Near East and Central Asia covering 3000 years. Easy enough for the non-scholar to digest.

[lamson_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a really good book. Most of the history I read is about specific period of time or a specific event. This book is a broad sweep of history. It is about seeing the forest and not just the trees.

[pdcread · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Silk Road. Just the very name conjures up images of travellers carrying expensive bolts of cloth, exotic spices and fine ceramics from the Far East to Europe. This road was more than that though, it was how the two separate domains of East and West first encountered each other, was the backdrop to countless wars, as power ebbed and flowed back and forth across the continent. The road has been responsible for the spread of numerous religions over millennia, not just the Abrahamic ones, but Buddhism and Zoroastrianism spread along the route. Great cities grew along the road, which spawned even greater cultures.

Western countries have dominated the planet for the last 500 years but in this book he argues that most of these turning points in history have had some greater or lesser influence from the Silk Road in world history. Not sure I agree with all of the inferences, but I think that he is right in that the fulcrum is tilting world power away from the West and back to the East once again. It is a very detailed, huge, broad-brush view of world history seen through the prism of this ancient route from Europe to the Far East. I had hoped there would be more on the ancient history of place and people that trekked and made their lives from the Silk Road network; there wasn’t sadly, but it was still a good history of the world seen from this perspective. 3.5 Stars overall.

[teunduynstee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Rather disappointing after the glorious predecessor. I loved The Silk Roads very much and was thrilled by getting this sequel as a present. However, it was slow, repetitive and boring. I think there is a good read hidden inside, but it should be trimmed down to about 50 pages and heavily edited.

[le.vert.galant · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is narrative world history as viewed from the center of Asia rather than from Europe. There are a number of interesting connections made, such as the effect of the Mongol invasion on the European balance of power, but several of the pre-twentieth century portions of the book are unbalanced and whole centuries are glossed over (much of the period covered in S. Frederick Starr's Lost Enlightenment is woefully underrepresented).

The thesis of the book, if it can be said to have one, is the impact of history on recent events in "that part of Asia which lies between the Mediterranean and the Himalayas." Here the book comes into its own, showing how the Europe and the United States have maneuvered themselves into losing influence and trust in the region.

[booktsunami · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Commenting on the events after 9/11/2001 (When the world Trade Centre was brought down) Frankopan comments: The determination to take controls overwhelming. Deposing existing regimes deemed destabilising and dangerous became paramount in the strategic thinking of the US and its allies. Priority was given to getting rid of clear and present dangers, with little thought to what would, could or should happen next. Fixing short term problems was more important than the long term scenario. This was explicit in the plans made against Afghanistan in the autumn of 2001......The same short terms was evident in the case of Iraq, where the sharp focus on removing Saddam Hussain from power was set against a lack of planning on how the country would look in the future......

[streamsong_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a tough read for me as I am deficient in history. It was chosen by my Newcomers’ Book Club last fall and, unfortunately took me several months to complete.While the United States is flip-flopping from one administration to the next on foreign policy, China is creating a clear coalition built of neighboring countries and those cash-poor countries that have vital resources or hold the key to trade routes. These coalitiions are often created when China provides loans for infrastructure or resource development. There is concern about what will happen if the countries cannot pay back these loans – will China suddenly own important infrastructure such as deep water ports, rare earth mines and airports if these poor countries default?In the meantime, the US is not only flipflopping on foreign policy, aid provided by the US is seen as having too many strings attached. Oftentimes, sanctions are imposed against countries without consideration of the impacts this will have on their trade partners.Clearly the author feels that the US is being out-strategized by the diplomatic policies of China under the leadership of Xi Jinping.Luckily the index for this book is comprehensive as it lists countries, leaders, important geographical features and much more. To show the immensity of the impact, I picked out the following affected countries from the index (this is probably not an exhaustive list of every country mentioned) :From the index: Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, India, China , Russia, Albania, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Bosnia, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Congo, Croatia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvadore, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Laos, Libya, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Montenegro, Nepal, Niger, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Sao Tome e Principe, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tonga, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Vatican, Venezuela, Vietnam, YemenI'm giving this four stars, because, while I don't think I will retain much beyond than the main points of this book, it will be a useful reference to look up current events.This review pertains to the 2020 edition. There is an earlier edition with a slightly different title that was printed before Trump was elected, which, naturally does not analyze his effects on foreign policy.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A couple of years ago I was one among unexpectedly high numbers of people who found themselves captivated by Peter Frankopan’s book, The Silk Roads, which offered a new perspective on world history. That deeply researched book looked at the far-reaching and enduring impact the histories and achievements of the nations in Central Asia, so frequently overlooked in the West, had visited upon the rest of the world, and became a surprise bestseller.In his new book, Frankopan seeks to consider what the present and the future have in store for the Silk Road countries. The most significant factors affecting that region over the last half century have been the dissolution of the USSR, which resulted in the independence of the various countries that make up Central Asia, and the emergence of China as a, indeed perhaps the, leading economic force on that continent. The former Soviet republics have enjoyed mixed fortunes since independence, determined largely by their respective mineral resources. Some have tapped immense wealth, based upon their oil or rare earth element supplies, while others have lurched less confidently into the twenty-first century.China’s financial ascent has been unfettered, which has in turn enabled it to invest heavily in many of its neighbours, helping them to upgrade previously basic, or even virtually non-existent infrastructures, which in turn allow even greater flow of trade. The camel trains of previous centuries are being replaced by high tech freight railways, often across dauntingly inhospitable terrain. In his analysis of this burgeoning economic development, Frankopan has followed Chinese investment into Southern Asia, where its expansionist aims have led to a fractious relationship with India, and even into Africa, where it is one of the most active supporters of industrial and commercial development.I felt that the latter half of the book strayed from the central theme of development of and by the central Asian countries and became bogged down in Frankopan’s excoriating criticism of President Trump and his somewhat individual approach to foreign policy. I am certainly no apologist for the Trump administration but I felt that, while probably entirely valid, his criticisms detracted from, rather than enhanced the book. I remember forty odd years ago, when grappling with my history essays for school, being woefully unprepared I had a tendency towards shameless waffle, in the vain hope that by throwing out an oblique but unsupported reference to the subject matter every few lines, I might convince my teacher that I was still on message. I strongly suspect that Frankopan was adopting that approach here for the second half of the book. Lengthy denunciations of potentially errant decisions by the Trump administrations are punctuated by a passing mention of the Silk Roads.By the way, the book is beautifully presented, with a glorious cover design, and lovely clear maps as endpapers. Unfortunately, the publisher then lets itself down by some appalling editing failures. The book is very up to date, with references to speeches and events from as recently as autumn 2018, which is always impressive, but I wonder if that extreme topicality was secured by dint of lackadaisical proof reading. I found instances of sentences repeated or words omitted far too frequently for comfort.While I enjoyed the book, I suspect that rather than cramming a quart into a pint pot, Frankopan was striving to string out a long essay into a standalone book, and was forced to lean upon the crutch of his sense of political outrage to fill in some of the gaps.