The Silk Road is as iconic in world history as the Colossus of Rhodes or the Suez Canal. But what was it, exactly? It conjures up a hazy image of a caravan of camels laden with silk on a dusty desert track, reaching from China to Rome. The reality was different--and far more interesting--as revealed in this new history.In The Silk Road, Valerie Hansen describes the remarkable archeological finds that revolutionize our understanding of these trade routes. For centuries, key records remained hidden-sometimes deliberately buried by bureaucrats for safe keeping. But the sands of the Taklamakan Desert have revealed fascinating material, sometimes preserved by illiterate locals who recycled official documents to make insoles for shoes or garments for the dead. Hansen explores seven oases along the road, from Xi'an to Samarkand, where merchants, envoys, pilgrims, and travelers mixed in cosmopolitan communities, tolerant of religions from Buddhism to Zoroastrianism. There was no single, continuous road, but a chain of markets that traded between east and west. China and the Roman Empire had very little direct trade. China's main partners were the peoples of modern-day Iran, whose tombs in China reveal much about their Zoroastrian beliefs. Silk was not the most important good on the road; paper, invented in China before Julius Caesar was born, had a bigger impact in Europe, while metals, spices, and glass were just as important as silk. Perhaps most significant of all was the road's transmission of ideas, technologies, and artistic motifs.The Silk Road is a fascinating story of archeological discovery, cultural transmission, and the intricate chains across Central Asia and China.Amazon.com ReviewAmazon.com Additional Content: Silk Road Photo Gallery (Click on Images to Enlarge)Here is a sample of the stunning photographs of documents and art objects that appear in The Silk Road: A New History. How the Silk Road Got Its NameThe German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen coined the term "Silk Road" with the publication of this map in 1877. Before this date, people referred to the route as the road to Samarkand (or whatever the next major city was).Tang BarbieWhen this seventh-century Chinese beauty was on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the staff nicknamed her "Tang Barbie" because she was the same height as the children's doll and every bit as fashionable. Her arms are made from recycled paper that turned out to be important documents from a pawnshop.Ancient NiyaWorn by the centuries, the outer layer of Niya's stupa has been stripped away, revealing the bricks underneath. Wooden documents found at this site are a treasure trove of information about life on the Silk Road in the third and fourth centuries.Zoroastrian Art from Xi'anThis Sogdian tomb has a typical Chinese stone tomb entranceway with Zoroastrian art above the doorway. Zoroastrian imagery found in tombs like this is much more detailed and much more informative than anything that survives in the Iranian homeland of Zoroastrianism.When Rivers Flowed Through the Taklamakan DesertMost riverbeds in the Taklamakan Desert today are bone dry, but in 1899 the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin used this 38-foot boat to explore the waterways of the region.Silk Road Dance PartyThe swirl, introduced by the Sogdians, was performed all along the Silk Road by men and women alike and described by contemporaries as fast-paced and exciting. This painted stone panel comes from the tomb of a Sogdian headman in Xi'an who died in 579 C.E.Review"An impressively well-researched book exploring the documentation of many different cultures and people along the many routes known as the Silk Road. Readers of Asian or world history will learn much from and thoroughly enjoy this book." -Library Journal"This book meets the challenge of being lively, readable, and at the same time extremely learned and up-to-date. In all respects a success."--Etienne de la Vaissière, EHESS, Paris "Valerie Hansen overturns the traditional view of the 'straight and well-travelled' Silk Road, as well as the notion that silk was of prime significance. Instead she reveals in detail the life, history, and culture of the different oasis centers of Central Asia, making the latest work by Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and other scholars available to us all. It is a triumph."--Frances Wood, Curator of the Chinese Collections, British Library "Erudite and engaging, this is no romantic tale of the Silk Road. Hansen challenges many of the conventional narratives of the crossroads of Eurasia. In place of large long distance commercial caravans, she finds subsistence living and local barter. Instead of merchants, she finds the Chinese military played the most important role in bringing silk onto the Silk Road. But the region is no less fascinating for all her debunking of old tropes. She skillfully weaves ancient records with modern explorations of the Silk Road to bring that past alive, especially the tolerant religious diversity of the region before Islam came to dominate around the year 1000. A wonderful read that will send you packing your bags!"-- Gray Tuttle, Columbia University "Valerie Hansen's The Silk Road is the most readable and reliable historical account of the fabled trade routes that cut across the center of Eurasia in medieval times. Based upon original sources and the best scholarship, the author's narrative is enriched by first-hand investigations in the field and extensive examination of artifacts in numerous museums. Handsomely illustrated, this volume brings to life as never before the men and animals who travelled from one Central Asian oasis to the next, conveying goods, ideas, art, music, and religions."--Victor H. Mair, University of Pennsylvania Views: 57
Fifty years after his death, C. S. Lewis continues to inspire and fascinate millions. His legacy remains varied and vast. He was a towering intellectual figure, a popular fiction author who inspired a global movie franchise around the world of Narnia, and an atheist-turned-Christian thinker.In C.S. Lewis—A Life, Alister McGrath, prolific author and respected professor at King's College of London, paints a definitive portrait of the life of C. S. Lewis. After thoroughly examining recently published Lewis correspondence, Alister challenges some of the previously held beliefs about the exact timing of Lewis's shift from atheism to theism and then to Christianity. He paints a portrait of an eccentric thinker who became an inspiring, though reluctant, prophet for our times.You won't want to miss this fascinating portrait of a creative genius who inspired generations. Views: 57
Top-notch surgeons Rafael and Abbie de Luca were once the Hunter
Clinic’s ‘dream-team’. But when their baby daughter fell ill, their
idyllic life came crashing down. Now reunited, it’s clear to this proud
Italian and his wife that their time apart has changed them – but can
they rekindle their once bright and burning passion? Views: 57
Christmas 1803, although the group of shipwrecked Royal Navy seamen have anything but festivities in mind as they pitch their wits against a French force sent to catch them. And all the while rescue, in the shape of a British frigate, lies temptingly close, yet just beyond their reach...Encompassing vicious sea battles, spirited land action and treachery from friend as much as foe, The Blackstrap Station tells a stirring tale of courage, honour and loyalty, set against the backdrop of what becomes a broiling Mediterranean summer. Views: 57
Eighteen-year-old Ethan Jones lives in Newhome, a town built upon the decaying ruins of post-apocalyptic Melbourne, ruins haunted by the ferocious Skel, a nomadic tribe of degenerate savages. After Ethan rescues a Japanese teenage girl from the Skel, she goes to great lengths to ingratiate herself into his life. But is it in gratitude for saving her life or is she seeking something more? Views: 57
Join Bertie in three hilarious new stories as he faces a barrage of footballs as the school's new goalie, battles to stay clean for the school photographer and has a spookily terrifying sleepover! Views: 57
After a nasty incident with a goat, the Troll family are forced to leave their native Norway and make a new home somewhere else. Unfortunately they choose the quiet suburb of Biddlesden. Faced with the prospect of 'Baked Beans' for dinner, and the awful spectre of 'The Shower', things are going to get ugly (and possibly hairy and smelly, too). But worst of all, they have moved next door to the Priddle family. Big mistake. Views: 57
Product DescriptionFires of Prometheus is the third book in the epic five-part science fiction series that chronicles humanity's first interstellar confederation, torn apart by religious strife and extremism. In this latest book of the Star Crusades series the sector is entering a short period of calm. There is peace in Proxima Centauri but for how long? The religious insurgency has already exploded throughout the system and one by one the colonies have seceded from the Confederacy, lured to the offerings of the Church of Echidna. Spartan and General Rivers have vanished and are presumed to have been executed at the hands of their Zealot captors for the murder of the President of Kerberos. Licking the wounds from multiple bloody engagements, Admiral Jarvis regroups her meagre forces. She desperately needs men and ships for the inevitable battle for Proxima. When she hears rumours of survivors being sold into slavery she sends Commander Anderson and his trusted team to follow a lead that will take them to the fiery planet of Prometheus and its terrible secret. Teresa Morato, refusing to believe Spartan is dead, joins the team in the hope of finding him alive. Fires of Prometheus is a classic work of realistic military science fiction set against the background of the first interstellar human empire. The Star Crusades Saga consists of: Book 1: Siege of Titan Book 2: Tears of Kerberos Book 3: Fires of Prometheus Book 4: Battle for Proxima (Sept 2011) Book 5: Fall of Terra Nova (Nov 2011) Views: 57
Today the classics of the western canon, written by the proverbial dead white men,” are cannon fodder in the culture wars. But in the 1950s and 1960s, they were a pop culture phenomenon. The Great Books of Western Civilization, fifty-four volumes chosen by intellectuals at the University of Chicago, began as an educational movement, and evolved into a successful marketing idea. Why did a million American households buy books by Hippocrates and Nicomachus from door-to-door salesmen? And how and why did the great books fall out of fashion?In A Great Idea at the Time Alex Beam explores the Great Books mania, in an entertaining and strangely poignant portrait of American popular culture on the threshold of the television age. Populated with memorable characters, A Great Idea at the Time will leave readers asking themselves: Have I read Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura lately? If not, why not? Views: 57
It's 1900, the dawn of a new century, and fifteen-year-old Rose Frampton is beginning a new life. She's left her family in South Carolina to live with her handsome and wealthy husband in Brooklyn, New York—a move that is both scary and exciting. As mistress of the large Victorian estate on Dorchester Road, she must learn to make decisions, establish her independence, and run an efficient household. These tasks are difficult enough without the added complication of barely knowing her husband. As romance blossoms and Rose begins to find her place, she discovers that strength of character does not come easily but is essential for happiness.Writing in diary form, Ann Rinaldi paints a sensual picture of time and place—and gives readers an intimate glimpse into the heart of a child as she becomes a woman.Includes a reader's guide. Views: 57
Does Callie have a second chance at love?Callie Dawson has spent the past five years caring for her terminally ill parents and working as a hospice nurse, and now her small-town roots have called her home to Tennessee. Used to healing others, she needs to make peace with God...and start over. But first she has to face the past. A terrible misunderstanding separated her from Kirk Jacobs, the rancher she once loved with all her heart. Is this her chance to make things right?Kirk can't believe Callie's back--working at his family's B and B and rekindling powerful feelings. The rancher knows he should take things slowly, but his heart tells him something else.... And when a devastating diagnosis threatens their newfound bond, Kirk has to show Callie that he'll always be there for her. Because he can't lose her a second time. Views: 57
From bestselling writer David Graeber, a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs, and their consequences.Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled "On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs." It went viral. After a million online views in seventeen different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer. There are millions of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs. Graeber explores one of society's most vexing and deeply felt concerns, indicting among other villains a particular strain of finance capitalism that betrays ideals shared by thinkers ranging from Keynes to Lincoln. Bullshit Jobs gives individuals, corporations, and societies... Views: 57
