Unravelling the Silk Road

By Chris Aslan,

Book cover of Unravelling the Silk Road: Travels and Textiles in Central Asia

Book description

Three textile roads tangle their way through Central Asia. The famous Silk Road united east and west through trade. Older still was the Wool Road, of critical importance when houses made from wool enabled nomads to traverse the inhospitable winter steppes. Then there was the Cotton Road, marked by greed,…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Unravelling the Silk Road as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I’ve spent my life tracing the first 20,000 years of our drive to dress ourselves, and this book adds unique knowledge to that search. 

Aslan traces the development of the three great natural fibers, wool, silk, and cotton, in Central Asia, a remarkably convoluted and fascinating story ranging from handmaking gorgeous textiles to the destruction of people and environments that the growing of water-thirsty cotton for vast markets has caused. Indeed, cotton recently swallowed the entire inland Sea of Azov and its tributaries, leaving the marooned docks and ships stuck in this new desert. 

His well-paced page-turner draws from decades…

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Interested in the Silk Road, Central Asia, and Asia?

The Silk Road 17 books
Central Asia 31 books
Asia 64 books