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Christopher I. Beckwith
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Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present Hardcover – April 5, 2009

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 217 ratings
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The first complete history of Central Eurasia from ancient times to the present day, Empires of the Silk Road represents a fundamental rethinking of the origins, history, and significance of this major world region. Christopher Beckwith describes the rise and fall of the great Central Eurasian empires, including those of the Scythians, Attila the Hun, the Turks and Tibetans, and Genghis Khan and the Mongols. In addition, he explains why the heartland of Central Eurasia led the world economically, scientifically, and artistically for many centuries despite invasions by Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Chinese, and others. In retelling the story of the Old World from the perspective of Central Eurasia, Beckwith provides a new understanding of the internal and external dynamics of the Central Eurasian states and shows how their people repeatedly revolutionized Eurasian civilization.


Beckwith recounts the Indo-Europeans' migration out of Central Eurasia, their mixture with local peoples, and the resulting development of the Graeco-Roman, Persian, Indian, and Chinese civilizations; he details the basis for the thriving economy of premodern Central Eurasia, the economy's disintegration following the region's partition by the Chinese and Russians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the damaging of Central Eurasian culture by Modernism; and he discusses the significance for world history of the partial reemergence of Central Eurasian nations after the collapse of the Soviet Union.



Empires of the Silk Road places Central Eurasia within a world historical framework and demonstrates why the region is central to understanding the history of civilization.

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  1. Print length
    504 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Princeton University Press
  4. Publication date
    April 5, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 1.75 x 9.25 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0691135894
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0691135892
  8. See all details
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4.3 out of 5 stars
217 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book interesting and informative, with useful appendices. They describe it as a comprehensive history of Central Asia that demystifies myths. However, opinions differ on the historical details, some finding them interesting and comprehensive, while others consider them overly generalizing and sketchy. Readers have mixed views on readability - some find it well-written and thoughtfully constructed, while others say it's a complex topic and not a simple read.

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Book contentHistoryReadability
27 customers mention "Book content"27 positive0 negative

Customers find the book interesting and easy to understand for non-scholars. They appreciate the useful appendices that provide a lot of information about Central Asia. The book demystifies myths and provides interesting details about history. It is an academic treatise that offers a surprising survey through the sweep of history. Readers describe it as fantastic and original contributions to this field of inquiry.

"...The ultimate result is delightfully jarring, a sort of spicy medley of all things scholarly and Central Eurasian, and a throwback perhaps to a bolder..." Read more

"...the many battles listed and the many jejeune names, this is a VERY good read." Read more

"...that offer some real insights and marshal relevant evidences. The same is true for the epilogue entitled 'The Barbarians'..." Read more

"...2. The book demystifies and sets the record straight of myths and misconceptions about Central Eurasia and its inhabitants while detailing how..." Read more

25 customers mention "History"16 positive9 negative

Customers have different views on the history. Some find it comprehensive and informative, providing a good introduction to Central Asian ancient world. Others feel the book is dry and didactic, with too many details of limited interest. The book seems either overly generalizing or too specific, with too many digressions into the histories of Western Europe, China, and Arabia.

"...and didactic in parts, Prof. Beckwith has written an excellent history on a complex system (the Silk Road and it's proto-capitalist history) and the..." Read more

"...of Central Eurasian Studies and just as importantly, this is a rigorous book meant as a brief but comprehensive outline of Eurasian history for..." Read more

"...as other reviewers have already noted, are way too sketchy, overly generalizing, at times propagandistic, and even off tangent...." Read more

"...This is a thoughtfully constructed treatise, giving a comprehensive overview of a sometimes enigmatic geographical area...." Read more

19 customers mention "Readability"11 positive8 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's readability. Some find it well-written and easy to understand, with a comprehensive overview of a complex topic. Others mention that it's not a simple read, with too much explanation and a dry academic tone.

"...This is a thoughtfully constructed treatise, giving a comprehensive overview of a sometimes enigmatic geographical area...." Read more

"...It's a complex topic so it's no simple read, but it is well written. Thank you for writing this book!!..." Read more

"...2. Highly technical and academic so it's hard to read and understand at times. The footnotes and appendices seem to meant for hardened scholars...." Read more

"...Fortunately, there are excellent footnotes and a great deal of up to date bibliography...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • RDG Stout
    5.0 out of 5 stars Swashbuckling History
    Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    This book is wild, veering about like four separate works sandwiched into one.

    First, it lays out the basics of the "Central Eurasian Culture Complex," staring with Proto-Indo-Europeans through Scythians and Turks to Germans and Mongols.

    Second, it connects the "Silk Road" Central Eurasian trading network to the "littoral system" of modern colonial powers, the latter as a continuation and replacement of the former.

    Third, the author goes off on a masterful screed against Modernism as an ideology, the movement that managed to destroy Central Eurasian culture and all else it touches.

    Fourth and finally, he argues against the "Barbarian" stereotype, demonstrating that Central Eurasians were no more warlike and indeed less aggressive than the peripheral empires of China, Persia, and Rome.

    The ultimate result is delightfully jarring, a sort of spicy medley of all things scholarly and Central Eurasian, and a throwback perhaps to a bolder, more cavalier breed of historian.

    It pairs nicely with his recent iconoclastic tome on the Scythian Empire.
    7 people found this helpful
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  • Ken dalson
    5.0 out of 5 stars Rayon or Silk, it's all good baby!
    Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Although a tad dry and didactic in parts, Prof. Beckwith has written an excellent history on a complex system (the Silk Road and it's proto-capitalist history) and the often ignored areas (by western historians) of Central Asia and the Near East. Along the way he gets to have fun by taking many swipes at Post Structuralism/Modernism/Post Modernism. Even so-called western "Democracy" and the elites and their patsies who support it get roasted thoroughly. Prof. Beckwith exposes the circular logic of guys like Foucault and Derrida, why modern "Democracy" has led to the pauperization and even enslavement of millions of people and continues to do so even right now, and even why there are no good modern poets and people don't quote modern poets the way they used to quote, say, Shakespeare (hint: modern poets write prose, not poetry, and the lack of stucture and rhythm, which even an 8 year old can ape, is forgettable dreck). Some of his posits I don't entirely agree with (the early Trading Companies operating in the Asian Littoral were, for all intents, governmental agencies) but so what? Who but a fool agrees with everyone on everything. If you can slog through the many battles listed and the many jejeune names, this is a VERY good read.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • inner exile
    4.0 out of 5 stars Updated synthesis
    Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2009
    Verified Purchase
    recounting the history of what the author terms 'Central Eurasian [henceforth CEA] Culture Complex,' which - geographically speaking - spread from Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula (i.e., Koguryo kingdoms) in the East to as far as the Pannon Plain/Carpathian Basin in the West, and in some respects even beyond those frontiers. One of the central themes connecting diverse peoples in this diachronic-synchronic/vertical-horizontal study is the presence of the oath-sworn guard corps (Latin 'comitatus') that gradually grew in number and formed the heart of CEA nations until the adoption of world religions in the Middle Ages (p. 15 passim). Maintaining the steady flow of luxury goods so as to reward their services played no small part as the raison d'etre for commerce along the Silk Road.

    You can read about the war charioteer Hittites, Ashvins/Wu-sun-s, Mycaneans; the state foundation struggles regarding Scythians vs. Cimmerians, Hsiung-nu-s vs. Tokhars, Huns vs. Goths, Turks vs. Avars, Mongols vs. Jurchens; as well as about the Arab conquest in Central Asia, the Khazar kaganate, imperial Tibet, Uighurs, and sundry. By extending the analysis to maritime-based trade (littoral systems) and subsequent European (Portuguese, Dutch, British, Russian) expansion/colonization in Asia, the Orientalist scholar may have cast his net far too wide. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the last two chapters (pp. 263-319, concerning 19-20th centuries), which, as other reviewers have already noted, are way too sketchy, overly generalizing, at times propagandistic, and even off tangent. Don't ask me what importance T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" or Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" holds for CEA history. Rather, the author could have breathed a word or two, say, about the Manchu-Chinese/Tibetan conflict vis-á-vis the Gurkha-ruled Nepal, the Opium Wars, the Crimean War, the 'Great Game' b/w Russia and Britain for the control of Central (and Inner) Asia, etc.

    Nitpicking or not, allow me to make a slight correction at this point w/ regard to the following assertion: "[After the demise of the Sakyapa overlordship, circa 1357, w]ith the partial exception of brief interregnum periods, Tibet continued to be largely unified under the rule of one or another Mongol state down to the defeat of the Junghars by the Manchu-Chinese (p. 258 fn. 80)." This is clearly untrue. There was almost zero Mongol influence in Central Tibet (ÜTsang), let alone their central authority, during the Pakmodrupa priest-kings (1358-, nominally, 1618) and the Rinpungpa governors/castellans (roughly, 1491-1566). Under the reign of the Tsangpa rulers (1567-1642) certain Tibetan factions, mainly but not exclusively the Gelukpas, sought contact w/ various Mongol tribes in order to secure their military aid. The Mongols' role during the early stage of the Dalai lama's regime (1642-1720) was that of a hired sword to subdue internal and external opposition.

    The main corpus is best read simultaneously with the endnotes, of which there are 111 (pp. 385-426), that offer some real insights and marshal relevant evidences. The same is true for the epilogue entitled 'The Barbarians' (pp. 320-62), which goes a long way to dispel a host of long-held misconceptions, and the two appendices ('The Proto-Indo-Europeans and their Diaspora,' pp. 363-74; 'Ancient Central Eurasian Ethnonyms,' pp. 375-84). As a methodological tool, turning the ruling paradigm of centre-periphery inside out facilitates bringing some well-deserved 'historical justice' to this marginalized region in crucial observations, such as:

    + "In every recorded case when the traditional Graeco-Roman, Persian, or Chinese empires of the periphery [!] became too powerful and conquered or brought chaos to the Central Eurasian nomadic states, the result for Central Asia, at least, was economic recession. The Han Dynasty destruction of the Hsiung-nu resulted in chaos...it was several centuries before the Türk, the next nomadic people who understood the Silk Road, could restore the system...When the Chinese and Arab alliance against Tibetans and the Western Turkic empire...succeeded...the result was chaos..., bringing with it severe recession, followed by rebellions and revolutions led by Sogdians and other merchant people [740-60s CE] that affected most of the continent. Finally, when the Manchu-Chinese and Russians partitioned Central Eurasia and the Ch'ing Dynasty destroyed the Junghar Empire [1755]...the economic devastation they wrought...was so total that even at the turn of the millennium in AD 2000 the area had not recovered (pp. 257-8)."
    + "There was a constant drain of people escaping from China into the realms of the Eastern Steppe, where they did not hesitate to proclaim the superiority of the nomadic life-style. Similarly, many Greeks and Romans joined the Huns...where they lived better and were treated better (p. 76)."
    + The primary goal of fortifications along the borders of peripheral empires from China through Persia to Rome ('limes' network or the Byzantine military governorships called 'theme') was offensive in nature, "to hold territory conquered from neighbouring states and to prevent loss of population to them (p. 330)."
    + "[T]he vast majority of the silk possessed by the Central Eurasians in the two millennia from the early Hsiung-nu times [4-3rd c. BCE] through the Mongols down to the Manchu conquest was obtained through trade and taxation, not war or extortion (p. 23)."
    + Raids of steppe people were, in many cases, triggered by the breaches of treaties, or were made at the request of some peripheral power against local enemies (divide et impera), e.g., the Manchus were called upon by the Chinese Ming dynasty to crush rebellion; the Mongols' aim was to uproot their Jurchen (Chin dynasty) adversaries (p. 335); Uighur Turks (757 CE) were invited to quell the An Lu-shan revolt -- their sacking of Loyang (762) "was authorized by the financially strapped T'ang court as a reward or payment (p. 338)."

    For reasons unknown, the following essays by the same author of the present tome have not found their way to the bibliography (pp. 427-55): 'Tibet and the Early Medieval Florissance in Eurasia,' in: Central Asiatic Journal 21 (2), 1977: pp. 89-104; in collaboration w/ Michael Walter: 'Some Indo-European Elements in Early Tibetan Culture,' in: Tibetan Studies 7, Vol. 2: pp. 1037-54, Vienna 1997.
    30 people found this helpful
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  • Eugene Ramcharan
    5.0 out of 5 stars Requires prior knowledge to best appreciate
    Reviewed in Canada on July 23, 2021
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    A thoughtful book on a timely subject, but requiring much background knowledge to follow intelligently.
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  • Maria Åkermark
    4.0 out of 5 stars Alldeles för dyr för stjärnorna
    Reviewed in Sweden on March 24, 2023
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    Alldeles för dyr!!! Trodde den skulle levereras på en sidenklädde med tofsar!!!
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  • Mara
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
    Reviewed in India on February 8, 2022
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    Good attempt to finally move on from eurocentric historical approach.
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  • ghostfinder
    5.0 out of 5 stars 得難い読書体験だった
    Reviewed in Japan on September 16, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    海外の歴史は自国に都合の良いことばかり書いてあり、日本のそれこそが最も中立、学術的にも素晴らしい。…そう信じていたのは、私がいわゆる保守陣営の歴史書を入門編にしていたからだろう。だが本書を含めていくつか海外の本格的な歴史書を読み、その知識量や情熱、公平さに圧倒された。保守層が「海外の歴史書」と呼ぶのは、中学程度の教科書、あるいは歴史に材をとった政治プロパガンダに類する本だったのではないか。もちろん私は日本の本格的なそれを未読であるから、単純な比較ができないが

    中央アジア諸国、ローマや中華に言わせれば蛮族あるいは遊牧民（しかし彼らの基盤は遊牧ではなく、ましてや都市の強奪ではなく農業と交易であることが本書の重要な指摘の一つであるが）の歴史的な役割の見直しがこのところ常識化したが、今のところ日本における通俗書を概観したところでは、例えば唐におけるソグド人の役割とか、部分的なものにとどまっていると、もちろん狭い読書体験の範囲であるが、そういう印象を持っている。この本は非常に広い空間と長時間の下で、彼らの興亡を述べており、私にとって歴史観を刷新される読書体験であった。何が起こって、それが次の何につながって、という単調な時間推移が、結局のところ多くの歴史観の根底であるが、これは横の関係が重要であることを実感できる。もちろん多くの人はそれをわかっているとは思うが、言葉の上でわかっていることを実体験させてくれるだろう。変化は知識が増えることではなく、パースペクティブの変化からくる。これはもう、実際に読んで体験していただくほかはない
    以下は余談である。私の心に残った点

    この少し前にヤスパースの歴史哲学を読んだところだった。その中で特筆されていたのが、よく言われる同時代的な奇跡、つまりギリシア自然哲学、インド哲学の成熟と釈迦の登場、中国の諸子百家、これに加えてユダヤ教の聖人たちの活躍、これらの空間的には交流がなかったはずの地域に、ほぼ一斉に思想的な飛躍が生じたことである。ヤスパースはこれを、人類の自然的発達のもたらした、十分にありうる偶然的現象として、おそらくはヘーゲル風の歴史観を支える材料とみなしている。
    　著者は源・ヨーロッパ語族がこの時期に周辺に大規模な移民を果たした結果であるとみる。彼らがそれぞれの先住民に溶け込む過程で生まれた軋轢と融和が、思想上の革新を生んだという。ただし、まだ資料は不十分であり、仮説にとどまるともいう
    　偶然と片付けることを良しとしないのであれば、確かにそれが最も妥当であるように思う。ちなみにそれに先立つ、殷から周への移行も、同様に西方からの移動民族が河北地方に原住する人々に溶け込んでいった結果であると説く。古代中国がいかに中央アジア的なものを含んでいるかを立証する手立ては、私の思いもよらぬ知識を使っており、手際も見事である
    　ここは重要な分岐点だ。ヘーゲル的な、何もかもぼんやりとした一般論にして強引に説得力を持たせる最近の傾向（ポストモダンとか思弁的唯物論とか）に私は不信感をもつが、こんなところにもそんな思想的傾向を打ち破る材料があるのかもしれない。一応は、ヘーゲル、ヤスパースの線が正しい可能性もあると言っておく。研究の発展を待ちたい

    モンゴルが東西交流の出発点であり、ここから本当の一体化した歴史が始まったという「俗説」が明快に否定されている点も印象深い。モンゴルは中央アジアが周辺国に影響を与えた、大規模ではあるが比較的遅めの一例である。もちろん著者は名指しで岡田英弘を批判しているのではない。しかし岡田氏の大発見のごとく言われている説が、ここでは俗説として片付けられていることに、私は胸のすく思いがする
    　この本の序で、自分はポストモダン的な歴史観に与しないとわざわざ断っているが、私はポストモダン的歴史などというものにお目にかかったことがなく、引っかかっていたのだが、読み終えてしばらく後、岡田史学こそポストモダンなのではと思ったのである。事実は知らない。しかし歴史の客観性を否定し、各個人のストーリーがあるだけとする岡田氏は、まさにポストモダンと呼ぶにふさわしいのではないか
    　さらに余談だが、このところ妙に評判の良い岡田氏の本を数冊読んで、その底にある何とも言えぬ不誠実さ、具体的には実証論より印象を優先する態度に、私は違和感を持った。そもそも持ち上げられ方がおかしい。学説が無視され、不遇をかこつ生涯であったとされる。でも彼は一貫して大学に籍を置き、芸術院賞をもらい、生前に著作集が出るという、地味なこの分野では破格の成功者である。この祝福された学者人生を不遇というのは、余りに価値観がずれすぎていて私を何ともやりきれない気持ちにする。保守層の、こういう無神経さが嫌いだ

    唐が歴史上まれにみる残虐な帝国であることは、言われてみれば当たり前なのだが、これを読むと背景込みでよくわかる。私の知識は古く、唐の文化への称賛ばかり読んできた気がする。たまに政治の暴虐を指摘する場合でも、自国民への圧政と政争の激しさ、つまり内部に向けてのことが主である。だがこの地域の大帝国の出現は、周辺諸国にとっては常に地獄であった。唐こそが、トルキスタンとチベット侵略の嚆矢である。ということは、今両国が完全に消えるとしたら中華帝国は千数百年かけて望みを遂げることになる。中国は百年単位で戦略を立てているという地政学の著書があったが、どうやらそういうことでもない。膨張主義は必然であり、戦略があるわけではなさそうだ

    とまあ、いろいろな空想の働く本であった
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  • Bonnie Ralph
    5.0 out of 5 stars This is a very thought-provoking book. Whilst I would ...
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 22, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    This is a very thought-provoking book. Whilst I would not necessarily accept all Beckwith's ideas, they did resonate to a certain extent, and they definitely gave me something to think about
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