Steve Sermersheim
asked:
Thinking about reading this book. Have you found it to be biased to western civilization?
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The Silk Roads: A New History of the World,
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Brian
The West plays a fairly major role in the story he's telling - and it dominates the latter half of the book. But the author does present the actions of the West objectively, and he isn't shy at highlighting the fact that the actions of the West have led to the predicaments it now finds itself facing. It's an illuminating read.
Erin Bottger (Bouma)
I found the first 4/5 of the book quite objective, even-handed and informative. But listening to it twice, the final chapters alienated me with their harsh, Leftist judgement of Western (especially American) politics and involvement. If you skip the last few chapters and summary, you'll come away with a better taste in your mouth.
Irene
I found that Frankopan wrote on the Ancient middle Asian cultures from their own respect very convincing until a little after the Arabian take over. Once he started to speak about other countries like Spain, Portugal, The Netherlands and UK on the sea (16-17 th century) it all became very UK oriented. Being Dutch, I feel I know the Dutch history of that period well enough to see some flaws in the story. The 19th -20th century view on the British and the Russians was new to me, and therefore, I enjoyed that part better.
Angelica Nelson
I think he reflects the biases of his sources. It's just that he's including more sources than most historians, and presenting alternative theories to some events, instead of regurgitating the same old story over and over. In my review I point out one place where he is overly focused on the west of Europe, but if you dig deeper, it might be because the records of goods bought and sold were sometimes written in a runic alphabet, and many rulers of Hungary systematically destroyed those just because of the alphabet. So maybe it's just that the history is better preserved in other places. Thought I"m not convinced. It's a good overview and a great place to start from, and dig deeper.
Ram Krishnan
Initial chapters seems to be biased towards Christianity but later chapters reveals that the author is critical towards all the actors equally
Karen Hannum
Not so much a Western point of view as a British Empire one. The first half of the book is very critical in my option of the Church, France, Portugal and other European countries as a whole. Once we get into the expansion of the British Empire, it seems he is more likely to criticize individuals rather than systems or groups.
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