Historian and author
Peter Frankopan is an English historian at the University of Oxford and the author of the international bestseller The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, which reframes global history by placing the crossroads of East and West at its centre. His work has been praised for its ambitious scope and narrative power.
by Peter Frankopan
Frankopan relocates the centre of world history from Europe to the lands between East and West, arguing that the Silk Roads of Central Asia have been the true pivot of global exchange, conquest, and power for two thousand years. He traces how silk, spices, slaves, faiths, and ideas flowed along these routes, shaping empires from the Persians to the Mongols to today's resurgent Asia, and why the region is once again becoming the world's strategic heart.
The books Peter Frankopan references, cites, and recommends most frequently.
by Jared Diamond
Diamond argues that geography, not racial superiority, explains why some civilizations dominated others. Differences in domesticable plants, animals, and continental axes gave certain societies an insurmountable head start.
by Yuval Noah Harari
Harari traces how Homo sapiens conquered the planet not through physical strength but through shared fictions, money, religion, nations. These collective myths let strangers cooperate at scales no other species can match.
by Will Durant
The Durants compress five thousand years of civilisation into sharp observations on recurring patterns in politics, morality, and economics. Human nature ensures history rhymes.
by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
Acemoglu and Robinson argue that the stark prosperity gap between nations is driven not by geography, culture, or ignorance but by the distinction between inclusive and extractive political and economic institutions. Their sweeping comparative history, built on pairs like Nogales Arizona/Sonora and North/South Korea, claims that elites who monopolize power lock in poverty while pluralistic institutions create self-reinforcing prosperity.
Who Peter draws from, and who draws from Peter — aggregated across every book in this collection. Counts show the number of citation links, not the depth of each one.