Books by Peter Hopkirk
“This is probably the most fun book. It’s a great read about different late 19th-century explorers from Central Asia who excavated the Silk Road sites that people still travel to today, as well as the documents and artifacts that made their way into European museums and collections. Each chapter is about explorers from a different country. It’s written in a very lively fashion.” Read more...
The best books on The Silk Road
Valerie Hansen, Historian
The Great Game
by Peter Hopkirk
It is a history of the game of exploration and espionage played out by representatives of Britain and Russia in the 19th century. In Delhi and London there were fears that the Russians would map the passes through Afghanistan and plan an invasion of British India. And the Russians would have had similar concerns that the British would enter Central Asia. It was a ‘game’, but a potentially deadly one.
Interviews where books by Peter Hopkirk were recommended
The best books on Victorian Adventures, recommended by Stephen Evans
High Commissioner to Bangladesh chooses books on the defining moments of 19th-century Britain and describes the game of exploration & espionage played out by Britain and Russia in the 19th century
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1
The Silk Road: A New History
by Valerie Hansen -
2
Sogdian Traders: A History
Étienne de la Vaissière (trans. James Ward) -
3
Diary: Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law
Ennin (trans. E O Reischauer) -
4
Foreign Devils on the Silk Road
by Peter Hopkirk -
5
Silk Roads: Peoples, Cultures, Landscapes
by Susan Whitfield
The best books on The Silk Road, recommended by Valerie Hansen
The best books on The Silk Road, recommended by Valerie Hansen
From the Han dynasty to the time of Marco Polo, the routes connecting Asia, Africa and Europe—now known as the Silk Road—were responsible for enormous amounts of global trade. Yale historian Valerie Hansen, author of The Silk Road: A New History, introduces us to its rich history: “one of the reasons the Silk Road is a misnomer is that silk was not the main good moving along.”
