Book contents
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- New Approaches to Asian History
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Introduction
- 1 Pastoral Nomads and the Empires of the Steppe
- 2 Early China
- 3 Zhang Qian and Han Expansion into Central Asia
- 4 The Early Han Dynasty and the Eastern Silk Roads
- 5 The Roman Empire and the Western Silk Roads
- 6 The Parthian Empire and the Silk Roads
- 7 The Kushan Empire
- 8 Maritime Routes of the First Silk Roads Era
- 9 Collapse of Empires and the Decline of the First Silk Roads Era
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 April 2018
Book contents
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- New Approaches to Asian History
- Empires of Ancient Eurasia
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Introduction
- 1 Pastoral Nomads and the Empires of the Steppe
- 2 Early China
- 3 Zhang Qian and Han Expansion into Central Asia
- 4 The Early Han Dynasty and the Eastern Silk Roads
- 5 The Roman Empire and the Western Silk Roads
- 6 The Parthian Empire and the Silk Roads
- 7 The Kushan Empire
- 8 Maritime Routes of the First Silk Roads Era
- 9 Collapse of Empires and the Decline of the First Silk Roads Era
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
This Introduction begins by considering the nineteenth-century origins of the term ‘Silk Roads’ (die Seidenstrassen), and whether the term is of continuing relevance for historians today. It also discusses various conceptual lenses that help make sense of the importance of the Silk Roads, including those of big history, world-systems theory, and globalization theory. It concludes by describing the intention of the nine chapters that follow, which is to explore the environmental, ecological, political, economic and cultural conditions that made Silk Roads exchanges possible.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Empires of Ancient EurasiaThe First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE – 250 CE, pp. 1 - 15Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018
References
Selected Further Reading
Benjamin, C., “Collective Learning and the Silk Roads,” in Grinin, L. and Korotayev, A., eds., Evolution 2015: From Big Bang to Nanorobots. Volgograd, Russia: Uchitel, 2015, pp. 101–111.Google Scholar
Christian, D., “Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads in World History,” Journal of World History 11, No. 1 (2000).Google Scholar
Christian, D., Brown, C. and Benjamin, C., Big History: Between Nothing and Everything. New York: McGraw Hill, 2014.Google Scholar
Frank, A. G. and Gills, D. K., eds., The World System: Five Hundred Years or Five Thousand? New York: Routledge, 1992.Google Scholar
Jennings, J., Globalizations and the Ancient World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
McNeill, J. and McNeill, W., The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2003.Google Scholar
Rezakhani, K., “The Road That Never Was: The Silk Road and Trans-Eurasian Exchange,” Project Muse 30, No. 3. (2010), pp. 420ff.Google Scholar
Waugh, D., “Richthofen’s ‘Silk Roads’: Towards the Archaeology of a Concept.” The Silk Road 5, No. 1 (Summer 2007), pp. 1ff.Google Scholar