PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY

Close Notification

Your cart does not contain any items

Empires of Ancient Eurasia

The First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE – 250 CE

Craig Benjamin (Grand Valley State University, Michigan)

$128.95

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

QTY:

English
Cambridge University Press
03 May 2018
The Silk Roads are the symbol of the interconnectedness of ancient Eurasian civilizations. Using challenging land and maritime routes, merchants and adventurers, diplomats and missionaries, sailors and soldiers, and camels, horses and ships, carried their commodities, ideas, languages and pathogens enormous distances across Eurasia. The result was an underlying unity that traveled the length of the routes, and which is preserved to this day, expressed in common technologies, artistic styles, cultures and religions, and even disease and immunity patterns. In words and images, Craig Benjamin explores the processes that allowed for the comingling of so many goods, ideas, and diseases around a geographical hub deep in central Eurasia. He argues that the first Silk Roads era was the catalyst for an extraordinary increase in the complexity of human relationships and collective learning, a complexity that helped drive our species inexorably along a path towards modernity.

By:  
Imprint:   Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 235mm,  Width: 157mm,  Spine: 20mm
Weight:   560g
ISBN:   9781107114968
ISBN 10:   1107114969
Series:   New Approaches to Asian History
Pages:   316
Publication Date:  
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Primary ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Introduction; 1. Pastoral nomads and the empires of the Steppe; 2. Early China: prelude to the silk roads; 3. Zhang Qian and Han expansion into Central Asia; 4. The early Han dynasty and the Eastern Silk Roads; 5. Rome and the Western Silk Roads; 6. The Parthian Empire and the Silk Roads; 7. The Kushan Empire: at the crossroads of ancient Eurasia; 8. Maritime routes of the first Silk Roads era; 9. Collapse of Empires and the decline of the first Silk Roads era; Conclusion.

Craig Benjamin is Professor of History at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. He is the author of several books and numerous chapters and articles on ancient history, including Volume 4 of The Cambridge History of the World (Cambridge, 2015). Craig has filmed programs and courses for the History Channel and The Great Courses. He is a Past President of the World History Association and Vice President of the International Big History Association.

Reviews for Empires of Ancient Eurasia: The First Silk Roads Era, 100 BCE – 250 CE

'Craig Benjamin places the pastoral nomads of Central Asia - and their horses - at the center of the story of the First Silk Road Era, convincingly arguing that the Yuezhi and Xiongnu, two militarized nomadic confederations rarely even mentioned in surveys of world history, are responsible for this dramatic period of trade and cultural exchange.' Merry Wiesner-Hanks, Editor-in-Chief, Cambridge World History 'A lucid, original, expert and up-to-date account of the emergence and evolution of the silk roads that began to weave together all the major civilizations of Europe, both by land and sea, early in the first Millennium CE. A great introduction to one of world history's most important themes.' David Christian, Macquarie University, Sydney 'Craig Benjamin places the pastoral nomads of Central Asia - and their horses - at the center of the story of the First Silk Road Era, convincingly arguing that the Yuezhi and Xiongnu, two militarized nomadic confederations rarely even mentioned in surveys of world history, are responsible for this dramatic period of trade and cultural exchange.' Merry Wiesner-Hanks, Editor-in-Chief, Cambridge World History 'A lucid, original, expert and up-to-date account of the emergence and evolution of the silk roads that began to weave together all the major civilizations of Europe, both by land and sea, early in the first Millennium CE. A great introduction to one of world history's most important themes.' David Christian, Macquarie University, Sydney


See Also