The centre of the world's gravity is shifting back towards where it lay for millennia. From east to west, the countries of the Silk Roads are rising once more, as networks and connections across the spine of Asia are restored and the region that once dominated the intellectual, cultural and economic landscape re-emerges. The Silk Roads is a timely and compelling new history of the world, covering several continents and centuries in order to explore the driving forces behind the rise and fall of empires, the flow of ideas and goods and the birth of this new era in international affairs.This dazzling history is a refreshing and convincing antidote to all the Eurocentric accounts of the world and has a sweep and ambition that is rare. Underpinned by scholarly skill yet rich with jewels of anecdotes and insight, The Silk Roads is as enlightening as it as enthralling.