By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean - Barry Cunliffe

Category: History
Language: English
Keywords: Great Steppe Corridor Indian Ocean Silk Roads

Written by Barry Cunliffe
Read by Jennifer M. Dixon
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean
The Birth of Eurasia
By: Barry Cunliffe
Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
Length: 18 hrs and 18 mins
Unabridged Audiobook
Release date: 24-08-2021
Language: English
Publisher: Tantor Audio

By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean is nothing less than the story of how humans first started building the globalized world we know today. Set on a huge continental stage, from Europe to China, it is a tale covering more than 10,000 years, from the origins of farming around 9000 BC to the expansion of the Mongols in the 13th century AD.

An unashamedly “big history”, it charts the development of European, Near Eastern, and Chinese civilizations and the growing links between them by way of the Indian Ocean, the Silk Roads, and the great steppe corridor (which crucially allowed horse riders to travel from Mongolia to the Great Hungarian Plain within a year). Along the way, it is also the story of the rise and fall of empires, the development of maritime trade, and the shattering impact of predatory nomads on their urban neighbors.

Above all, as this immense historical panorama unfolds, we begin to see in clearer focus those basic underlying factors - the acquisitive nature of humanity, the differing environments in which people live, and the dislocating effect of even slight climatic variation - that have driven change throughout the ages and that help us better understand our world today.

©2015 Barry Cunliffe (P)2021 Tantor