This remarkable and ambitious book could not be more timely, given the necessity of understanding the 'Silk Road(s)' in this time of deepening global shifts and tensions. Winter combines extraordinary scholarly depth and breadth, as he draws apart the many elements, ideas, and associations ascribed to this compelling geocultural and geostrategic concept. By looking at the intersections of popular culture, political events, and expert commentary, he shows how 'the Silk Road' is used by different actors, in evolving ways, to make historical, cultural, and political claims around space, connectivity, and values. This book is an interdisciplinary masterpiece and deserves close attention from all analysts of the Silk Road.
Tim Winter is an Australian Research Council Professorial Future Fellow at the University of Western Australia. His work addresses how the past comes to be constructed and reconstructed for public audiences and for diplomatic, geopolitical, and nationalistic purposes. His most recent book is Geocultural Power: China's Quest to Revive the Silk Roads for the Twenty First Century (2019).