The author of this ambitious book is a well-known scholar who has labored long and with great profit in the field of Inner Asian (or, to use his preferred terminology, Central Eurasian) history and culture. His publications reveal a wide range of interests from political and economic history to historical linguistics. This recent title benefits from his decades of work in these and related areas, and represents his latest views on the subject.
Christopher Beckwith is very clear about his purpose in writing this book. He seeks to assert the centrality of Central Eurasia to world history and, in doing so, to point out some important historical themes that have not received adequate attention and to dispel some persistent historical misconceptions connected to Central Eurasia. He argues that trade is most important to understanding the history of Central Eurasia, and that much of this trade was promoted by the common...
