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Silk Road: Monks, Warriors & Merchants
Average Customer Review : 5.0/5 based on 4 reviews
Usually ships in 2 to 4 weeks
List Price : $26.95
Price : $17.79
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Editorial Reviews
The Silk Road conjures up images of romance and mystery. This illustrated history of the trade connections that linked the Mediterranean world with China is a must for those interested in the Silk Road as a travel destination and for those who love adventure.
Spotlight Reviews
All i needed (2008-03-10)
Customer Review : 5
Got to me in a decent enough time and nothing was wrong with the book so i would say overall pretty good.
How to bring history alive (2007-05-07)
Customer Review : 4
This is a fascinating coverage of a area, region call it what you may. The Silk Road has been part of the adventure stories that we have come across over many years, not knowing much about it; but we have thought that one day we might just get there ourselves.
Purchased with the idea that if I am going to visit this area, and I will in the not too distant future, this is the ideal book to read, savior and be intrigued with the Monks Warriors & Merchants that have gone before us.
If only I could pronounce the names - but then that is another book, another read.
Cross Cultural (2007-01-09)
Customer Review : 5
This is the book I wish I had written. I have traveled in most of these countries and studied their history and culture. I was so thrilled to see the information pulled together and the follow-through to show the outcomes of movements and trade goods. Fascinating. Loved it!!
how silk came west (2006-04-12)
Customer Review : 5
This book is a fantastic cultural adventure and should be read by anyone interested in cross-cultural relationships. More than a topographical description of the silk road, it is a gallop though history explaining paths taken by silk to get to Europe. It starts in prehistoric china and ends with the Karakorum highway, synthetizing in twenty chapters the reasons for the often difficult diffusion of luxury products from the Far East. The author, that evidently knows well chinese history and mentality, takes us by hand into the ancient cinese political issues as to foreign commerce, the fundamental role played by Iranians, byzantines and arabs during the Middle Ages up to the wary reciprocal opening of European and Cinese worlds due to brave and curious travelers. So we meet princesses, monks and merchants and get to know their fascinanting stories. One point of force of the book is the meticulous and modern analysis of these travel tales, so we have a critical perspective of what has come down in history and makes up our cultural background. Marco Polo get's revisited and also less well known ancient and modern travelers are cited.
Boulnois loves silk (her detailed description of materials of the old world and how they were made is enlightening)and its history, so she brings us to her country, France, and to the evolution of the silk industry in the XIX and XX century. And this somehow closes the circle of the story of this precious tissue that reached its apogeum in the last century.
The book however is much more than this and carries a great amount of information. It could be described actually as a textbook on the history of silk. It is well written even if not too easy to read, and sometimes it is a little repetitive.
I enjoyed it very much and feel enriched by its reading.
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