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

Towards the middle of the 20th century, scholarly research revealed that the fabled Silk Roads, far from being mere trade routes, were cultural highways that played a pivotal role in linking East and West, intermittently bringing together nomads and city dwellers, pastoral peoples and farmers, merchants and monks, and soldiers and pilgrims. Although the articles in this book are wide ranging, they reveal the emergence of the concept of a common heritage and plural identity.