This book is an epic undertaking, showcasing world history up to the early 2010’s, through the lense of the silk road. History has many authors, and this book does well to capture their ideas in a cohesive framework. The thesis presented here outlines how resource transportation routes shaped our world history. Equally important to the goods flowing through commerce were new ideas, including religions, and a massive game of political chess. Short term policies crafted to maintain power at the expense of those without it, often led to self destruction through overreach (and over spending). Worse still was the long term instability created by dying powers’ abrupt departure from battleground regions. The most shocking lesson I took away is how cyclical our world history is. The fight for power, and abhorrent disregard for others by those trying to maintain it, is the saddest trait we share.

The book starts off slow, but is worth persevering through. It started about 2000 years ago, with the empire of Persia, and the creation of the silk roads. From there, the rise and fall of new and old players, in a dance of power politics and war is spectacular. I hope one day we’ll learn from our history, and end the senseless killing of those who are simply trying their best to get by.

My key takeaways

• How a world with hundreds of religions is reduced to a few
• Why the middle east is so unstable, well into the 21st century
• The luck involved to create a golden era
  • How quickly that era falls when the KingPin dies
• All empires at the top of the totem pole eventually fall
  • The cause of their downfall is often overspending on military:
    • Roman empire
    • Portugal/Spain in the 15th & 16th century
    • England in the 17th-20th century
• The human cost required to sustain an empire is terrible

And most importantly, how frequently history repeats itself.

5/5.