Exploring the “-stans”: Review of “Silk Road to Ruin”
March 6, 2008
The ancient trade network between East and West known as the Silk Road is one of history's great melting pots, and the world's most dynamic mixture of culture, language, and knowledge. Frances Wood uses the Silk Road as mostly a conceptual backdrop for more specific historical vignettes here, as a complete history of all the different cultures and societies involved, over the course of at least three millennia, would be prohibitively huge.
Though there is some discussion of actual trade and the goods transported long distance and sold in the area's bazaars, Wood focuses on specific areas of interest, such as the mysterious Xiongnu people of ancient times, or the more modern dramatic journeys of explorers like Sven Hedin.
A nice bonus is a debunking of some of the claims of Marco Polo, who surely traveled through the area but made many dubious descriptions of particular locations he probability didn't really see. Instead we hear the fascinating stories of other less-known but arguably more impressive travelers of the time, like Bento de Goes.
Some of Wood's narratives get worrisomely far away from the Silk Road backdrop, and the tail end of the book is a bit of a slog with tedious coverage of latter-day explorers. However, the general appreciation for the importance of the Silk Road is the larger achievement of this book, and the frequent illustrations and photographs of forlorn landscapes and ancient masterpieces make this book a visual treat as well.
$12.21
Thanks, interesting.