Back To The Silk Roads
In response to my recent post on the so-called Silk Roads, a reader asked me what books I would recommend for someone interested in learning more about the subject. I will try to show some restraint.*
Here are some of my favorite books and websites on the subject:
- Boulnois, Luce and Helen Loveday. Silk Road: Monks, Warriors and Merchants. 2003.
- Sims-Williams, Ursula and Susan Whitfield. The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith. 2004.
- Wood, Frances. The Silk Road: 2000 Years in the Heart of Asia. 2002
- Wyatt, James C. Y. When Silk Was Gold: Central Asia and Chinese Textiles. 1997.
- Saudi Aramco World's silk roads issue **
- For the truly hard core: The Silk Road Foundation
Enjoy! And feel free to add more suggestions, or argue about my choices, in the comments.
*It's always dangerous asking me this type of question. Where some people have an Inner Child, I have an Inner Reference Librarian. You have been warned.
** If you're interested in things Islamic, Saudi Aramco World can't be beat. You can sign up for a free hard copy subscription or read it on-line each month,
A Treasure Trove for History (And Film) Buffs
If you've been hanging out in the places I hang out on line, you already got the word: British Pathé has put its 85,000 historic newsreels on YouTube. My first reaction was "Cool. That's a great resource for people who write about the 20th century." Then I looked a little closer.
The company's founder, Charles Pathé, was a pioneer of moving pictures at the end of the nineteenth century and the inventor of the cinema newsreel. For almost 100 years, British Pathé caught the news of the world on film. The new YouTube archive offers 3500 hours of filmed history--that's a lot of blog posts in the making. If you want to see Queen Victoria's funeral, the Wright Brother's first flight, footage of the Battle of the Somme,* or the Beatles' arrival in New York in 1964--head on over. I suggest you set a really annoying timer before you click the first video. Otherwise, you may never find your way out.
As a teaser, here's a newsreel documenting Mahatma's Gandhi's arrival in England in 1932:
[Just a reminder: if you're reading this via e-mail, you will need to view the post in your browser to see the video. Just click the post title and it will take you there.]
* If you're interested in this one, I suggested you read Ian Beckett's account of making the first war documentary (The Battle of the Somme, 1916) in The Making of the First World War: A Pivotal History
Gandhi Before India
The first volume of what may well be the definitive biography of Mohandas Gandhi, Ramachandra Guha's Gandhi Before India covers the years from Gandhi's birth in 1869 through his departure from South Africa in July, 1914.
Biographers have often treated Gandhi's earlier life-- especially his two decades working in South Africa--as a little more than a warm-up for leading the struggle for Indian independence. Guha gives this period serious and detailed attention, arguing that such attention is necessary if we are to understand both "how the Mahatma was made" and Gandhi's critical role in South African history.
Even a reader who is familiar with Gandhi's history will find new insights in Gandhi Before India. Guha not only draws on Gandhi's own writings from and about this period, but also uses a wide range of contemporary sources, from Gandhi's childhood school reports to secret files kept by South African officials. By focusing on contemporary records rather than retrospective accounts, he overturns some accepted "truths" and introduces new elements to a familiar story. Perhaps the most interesting parts of the book are the side excursions that illuminate elements of Gandhi's life: the British ranking Indian rulers, the history of vegetarianism in England, Johannesburg as a cultural and intellectual melting pot.
Gandhi Before India is a step-by-step account of how a previously uninspiring member of a Gujurati merchant caste transcended the conventions of his caste, class, religious and ethnic backgrounds to become one of the most important--and controversial--figures of the twentieth century. I recommend it highly.
A version of this review appeared previously in Shelf Awareness for Readers.