Try free for 30 days
-
The Silk Roads
- A New History of the World
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 25 hrs and 7 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $37.98
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
The Earth Transformed
- An Untold History
- By: Peter Frankopan
- Narrated by: Peter Frankopan
- Length: 29 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Earth Transformed, ground-breaking historian Peter Frankopan shows that engagement with the natural world and with climatic change and their effects on us are not new: exploring, for instance, the development of religion and language and their relationships with the environment; tracing how growing demands for harvests resulted in the increased shipment of enslaved peoples; scrutinising how the desire to centralise agricultural surplus formed the origins of the bureaucratic state; and seeing how efforts to understand and manipulate the weather have a long history.
-
-
Badly read
- By DGL on 17-10-2023
-
Napoleon the Great
- By: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
- Length: 37 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Napoleon Bonaparte lived one of the most extraordinary of all human lives. In the space of just 20 years, from October 1795, when as a young artillery captain he cleared the streets of Paris of insurrectionists, to his final defeat at the (horribly mismanaged) battle of Waterloo in June 1815, Napoleon transformed France and Europe. After seizing power in a coup d'état, he ended the corruption and incompetence into which the revolution had descended.
-
-
Well worth the listen
- By Michael Flanagan on 20-05-2015
-
The New Silk Roads
- The Present and Future of the World
- By: Peter Frankopan
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'All roads used to lead to Rome. Today, they lead to Beijing.' When The Silk Roads was published in 2015, it became an instant classic. A major reassessment of world history, it compelled us to look at the past from a different perspective. The New Silk Roads brings this story up to date, addressing the present and future of a world that is changing dramatically. Following the Silk Roads eastwards, from Europe through to China, by way of Russia and the Middle East, The New Silk Roads provides a timely reminder that we live in a world that is profoundly interconnected.
-
-
well researched
- By Elliot W. on 30-05-2019
-
Being You
- A New Science of Consciousness
- By: Anil Seth
- Narrated by: Anil Seth
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Being you is not as simple as it sounds. Somehow, within each of our brains, billions of neurons create our everyday conscious experience. But how does this happen? Anil Seth's unique and groundbreaking theory of what it means to 'be you' challenges our understanding of perception and reality, doing for brain science what Dawkins did for evolutionary biology. Being You is an accessible, inspiring and eye-opening exploration of consciousness by one of the most remarkable pioneers working in science today.
-
-
Will blow your mind
- By Anonymous User on 09-11-2021
-
Ghost Empire
- By: Richard Fidler
- Narrated by: Richard Fidler
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ghost Empire is a rare treasure - an utterly captivating blend of the historical and the contemporary, realised by a master storyteller. In 2014, Richard Fidler and his son Joe made a journey to Istanbul. Fired by Richard's passion for the rich history of the dazzling Byzantine Empire - centred around the legendary Constantinople - we are swept into some of the most extraordinary tales in history. The clash of civilisations, the fall of empires, the rise of Christianity, revenge, lust, murder.
-
-
Loved it.
- By Fjp on 23-04-2017
-
The Order of Time
- Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch
- By: Carlo Rovelli
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Time is a mystery that does not cease to puzzle us. Philosophers, artists and poets have long explored its meaning while scientists have found that its structure is different from the simple intuition we have of it. From Boltzmann to quantum theory, from Einstein to loop quantum gravity, our understanding of time has been undergoing radical transformations. Time flows at a different speed in different places, the past and the future differ far less than we might think, and the very notion of the present evaporates in the vast universe.
-
-
Fascinating and thought provoking
- By JM on 28-08-2018
-
The Earth Transformed
- An Untold History
- By: Peter Frankopan
- Narrated by: Peter Frankopan
- Length: 29 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Earth Transformed, ground-breaking historian Peter Frankopan shows that engagement with the natural world and with climatic change and their effects on us are not new: exploring, for instance, the development of religion and language and their relationships with the environment; tracing how growing demands for harvests resulted in the increased shipment of enslaved peoples; scrutinising how the desire to centralise agricultural surplus formed the origins of the bureaucratic state; and seeing how efforts to understand and manipulate the weather have a long history.
-
-
Badly read
- By DGL on 17-10-2023
-
Napoleon the Great
- By: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: Stephen Thorne
- Length: 37 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Napoleon Bonaparte lived one of the most extraordinary of all human lives. In the space of just 20 years, from October 1795, when as a young artillery captain he cleared the streets of Paris of insurrectionists, to his final defeat at the (horribly mismanaged) battle of Waterloo in June 1815, Napoleon transformed France and Europe. After seizing power in a coup d'état, he ended the corruption and incompetence into which the revolution had descended.
-
-
Well worth the listen
- By Michael Flanagan on 20-05-2015
-
The New Silk Roads
- The Present and Future of the World
- By: Peter Frankopan
- Narrated by: Leighton Pugh
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'All roads used to lead to Rome. Today, they lead to Beijing.' When The Silk Roads was published in 2015, it became an instant classic. A major reassessment of world history, it compelled us to look at the past from a different perspective. The New Silk Roads brings this story up to date, addressing the present and future of a world that is changing dramatically. Following the Silk Roads eastwards, from Europe through to China, by way of Russia and the Middle East, The New Silk Roads provides a timely reminder that we live in a world that is profoundly interconnected.
-
-
well researched
- By Elliot W. on 30-05-2019
-
Being You
- A New Science of Consciousness
- By: Anil Seth
- Narrated by: Anil Seth
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Being you is not as simple as it sounds. Somehow, within each of our brains, billions of neurons create our everyday conscious experience. But how does this happen? Anil Seth's unique and groundbreaking theory of what it means to 'be you' challenges our understanding of perception and reality, doing for brain science what Dawkins did for evolutionary biology. Being You is an accessible, inspiring and eye-opening exploration of consciousness by one of the most remarkable pioneers working in science today.
-
-
Will blow your mind
- By Anonymous User on 09-11-2021
-
Ghost Empire
- By: Richard Fidler
- Narrated by: Richard Fidler
- Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ghost Empire is a rare treasure - an utterly captivating blend of the historical and the contemporary, realised by a master storyteller. In 2014, Richard Fidler and his son Joe made a journey to Istanbul. Fired by Richard's passion for the rich history of the dazzling Byzantine Empire - centred around the legendary Constantinople - we are swept into some of the most extraordinary tales in history. The clash of civilisations, the fall of empires, the rise of Christianity, revenge, lust, murder.
-
-
Loved it.
- By Fjp on 23-04-2017
-
The Order of Time
- Narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch
- By: Carlo Rovelli
- Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch
- Length: 4 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Time is a mystery that does not cease to puzzle us. Philosophers, artists and poets have long explored its meaning while scientists have found that its structure is different from the simple intuition we have of it. From Boltzmann to quantum theory, from Einstein to loop quantum gravity, our understanding of time has been undergoing radical transformations. Time flows at a different speed in different places, the past and the future differ far less than we might think, and the very notion of the present evaporates in the vast universe.
-
-
Fascinating and thought provoking
- By JM on 28-08-2018
-
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Jack Weatherford
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization.
-
-
Surprisingly good
- By Amazon Customer on 25-09-2017
-
The Wealth of Nations
- By: Adam Smith
- Narrated by: Gildart Jackson
- Length: 36 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The foundation for all modern economic thought and political economy, The Wealth of Nations is the magnum opus of Scottish economist Adam Smith, who introduces the world to the very idea of economics and capitalism in the modern sense of the words.
-
-
Classic underlying
- By Kindle Customer on 19-04-2018
-
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
- By: Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Length: 3 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? There's no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson. But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in digestible chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.
-
-
This book is just brilliant.
- By completeaerogeek on 01-06-2017
-
Prisoners of Geography
- Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics
- By: Tim Marshall
- Narrated by: Ric Jerrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If you've ever wondered why Putin is so obsessed with Crimea, why the USA was destined to become a global superpower or why China's power base continues to expand ever outwards, the answers are all here. In 10 chapters, using essays and occasionally the personal experiences of the widely travelled author, Prisoners of Geography looks at the past, present and future to offer an essential insight into one of the major factors that determines world history.
-
-
Update?
- By Dan on 11-02-2021
-
Soil
- By: Matthew Evans
- Narrated by: Matthew Evans
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Soil is the unlikely story of our most maligned resource as swashbuckling hero. A saga of bombs, ice ages and civilisations falling. Of ancient hunger, modern sicknesses and gastronomic delight. It features poison gas, climate collapse and a mind-blowing explanation of how rain is formed. For too long, we've not only neglected the land beneath us, we've squandered and debased it, by over-clearing, over-grazing and over-ploughing.
-
-
I got very excited about my soil
- By Shakya on 15-09-2021
-
The Idiot
- By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Narrated by: Constantine Gregory
- Length: 24 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Prince Lyov Nikolayevitch Myshkin is one of the great characters in Russian literature. Is he a saint or just naïve? Is he an idealist or, as many in General Epanchin's society feel, an "idiot"? Certainly his return to St. Petersburg after years in a Swiss clinic has a dramatic effect on the beautiful Aglaia, youngest of the Epanchin daughters, and on the charismatic but willful Nastasya Filippovna. As he paints a vivid picture of Russian society, Dostoyevsky shows how principles conflict with emotions - with tragic results.
-
-
A very worthy translation
- By Duncan Menge on 26-09-2020
-
The Templars
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Knights Templar were the wealthiest, most powerful - and most secretive - of the military orders that flourished in the crusading era. Their story - encompassing as it does the greatest international conflict of the Middle Ages, a network of international finance, a swift rise in wealth and influence followed by a bloody and humiliating fall - has left a comet's tail of mystery that continues to fascinate and inspire historians, novelists and conspiracy theorists. Unabridged edition read by Dan Jones.
-
-
‘The Templars’, by Dan Jones
- By lone on 24-04-2018
-
A Land So Strange
- The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca
- By: Andres Resendez
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 7 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1528, a mission set out from Spain to colonize Florida. But the expedition went horribly wrong: Delayed by a hurricane, knocked off course by a colossal error of navigation, and ultimately doomed by a disastrous decision to separate the men from their ships, the mission quickly became a desperate journey of survival. Of the 300 men who had embarked on the journey, only four survived - three Spaniards and an African slave.
-
-
Soo good I enjoy listening multiple times
- By Momo on 23-08-2023
-
One Summer
- America 1927
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Bill Bryson
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One Summer: America, 1927, is the new book by Britain’s favourite writer of narrative nonfiction, Bill Bryson. Narrated by the man himself, One Summer takes you to the summer when America came of age, took centre stage, and changed the world forever. In the summer of 1927, America had a booming stock market, a president who worked just four hours a day, a semi-crazed sculptor with a plan to carve four giant heads into a mountain called Rushmore, a devastating flood of the Mississippi, a sensational murder trial, and a youthful aviator named Charles Lindbergh who started the summer wholly unknown, and finished it as the most famous man on Earth.
-
-
A Summer more or less
- By Cainsy on 17-05-2015
-
Travels with My Aunt
- By: Graham Greene
- Narrated by: Tim Pigott-Smith
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, meets his septuagenarian Aunt Augusta for the first time in over 50 years at his mother’s funeral. Soon after, she persuades Henry to abandon South wood, his dahlias and the Major next door to travel through Brighton, Paris, Istanbul, Paraguay...
-
-
Fast paced writing with disappointing narration
- By Natasha Langford on 14-11-2020
-
The Hollow Crown
- The Wars of the Roses and the Rise of the Tudors
- By: Dan Jones
- Narrated by: Dan Jones
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some of the greatest heroes and villains in British history were thrown together in these turbulent times: Henry V, whose victory at Agincourt and prudent rule at home marked the high point of the medieval monarchy; Edward IV, who was handed his crown by the scheming soldier Warwick the Kingmaker, before their alliance collapsed into a fight to the death; and the last Plantagenet, Richard III, who stole the throne and murdered his own nephews, the Princes in the Tower.
-
-
Great storytelling although maybe a bit biased to the Tudors
- By Tim M on 27-11-2022
-
One Hundred Years of Solitude
- By: Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa - translator
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize-winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.
-
-
Oh for Armando Duran...
- By Kim on 06-09-2018
Publisher's Summary
Bloomsbury presents The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan, read by Mike Grady.
The No. 1 Sunday Times and international bestseller—a major reassessment of world history in light of the economic and political renaissance in the re-emerging east
For centuries, fame and fortune was to be found in the west—in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of adventure and riches. The region stretching from eastern Europe and sweeping right across Central Asia deep into China and India, is taking centre stage in international politics, commerce and culture—and is shaping the modern world.
This region, the true centre of the earth, is obscure to many in the English-speaking world. Yet this is where civilization itself began, where the world’s great religions were born and took root. The Silk Roads were no exotic series of connections, but networks that linked continents and oceans together. Along them flowed ideas, goods, disease and death. This was where empires were won—and where they were lost. As a new era emerges, the patterns of exchange are mirroring those that have criss-crossed Asia for millennia. The Silk Roads are rising again.
A major reassessment of world history, The Silk Roads is an important account of the forces that have shaped the global economy and the political renaissance in the re-emerging east.
Critic Reviews
"Brilliant and fearlessly wide-ranging." (Guardian, Books of the Year)
"Breathtaking and addictively readable." (Daily Telegraph, History Book of the Year)
"Dazzlingly good." (Evening Standard)
More from the same
What listeners say about The Silk Roads
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bruce Nixon
- 16-10-2022
Fantastic book - educational and gripping!
This is one of the best books I have listened to and I found it extremely interesting and relevant to understanding the events of today's world. I really wish that history was taught like this to m growing up and for my kids today. One of my favourite all time books. Also very easy to listen to and well narrated. Cant recommend enough to anyone that is interested in geopolitics and the big issues that affect us all!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Hayden M
- 10-01-2023
First third of the book is the most relevant
It was nice being taken through a historical journey centered on the middle east, and I learnt a lot.
However:
- The center of the book from around 1550, up until 1900 felt like just another european history book. Which on one level I was fine with but it felt like it was just so the book could talk about the middle east again when it become relevant to the world with oil
- I think the attempt to make it seem like the shift of focus back to the middle east for oil grabbing was just the silk roads v2 was overdone, and I'm left a bit unconvinced
I particularly learned a lot from the sections on the persian empire, the caliphate, the mongols and the uk/us screwing up the middle east over oil.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 16-03-2023
Essential human knowledge, no bloody chapter references !
Essential human knowledge, no bloody chapter references. How much extra time and money could it cost to provide references for 25 chapters.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- me_lady
- 09-11-2022
Deep and different
A marvelous overview of the history of the world, with the deep dive into the history of the 20th century, and especially the evolving place of the western empires
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 28-04-2023
Brilliant!
Frankopan is the real deal. A time travellers guidebook into the truth of the modern world.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Piyumini
- 09-01-2024
good book to start with
the patterns in history the author had brought up here is fascinating and definitely would make a person want to explore more. the narrator is perfect
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!