The Silk Roads

This history surveys the overland routes that linked China with Central Asia and the Mediterranean, treating silk, jade, and other goods as one thread in a longer movement of people and ideas. Wood follows Han trade with the Xiongnu, the Sogdian and Tocharian networks, the travel of Buddhism, Manichaeism, Nestorian Christianity, and Islam, and later Mongol and Ming contacts. Later chapters turn to the Great Game, the archaeologist-explorers Stein, Hedin, Pelliot, and von Le Coq, and travel in the early twentieth century. The book is a cultural history of the routes, not a merchant's handbook.

Bound in mid-green silk blocked with a gilt pattern on covers and spine. Pale brown slipcase wrap-around printed with a monotone photo.