The Silk Roads

Frankopan recentres world history on the land bridge between East and West — Persia, Central Asia, the steppe — and follows it from antiquity to the present.

Why it’s on the list: Named in the “best history book” thread. A deliberate correction to the Atlantic-facing default, and useful precisely because it reads the same events from a different centre.

Where I saw it: In Kyle’s “Books To Read” Apple Note, recovered from the reply thread to @typesfast asking “What’s the best history book you’ve read?” (June 5, 2025). The full recovered list lives on What’s the best history book… (tweet).

Connections

• What’s the best history book… (tweet) — the thread this came out of; the full recovered list lives there.
• Globalization · Geopolitics — the frame.