Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at Oxford University, where he is Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research and Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford. He is also Professor of Silk Roads Studies and a Bye-Fellow at King's College, Cambridge.
He works on the history and politics of the Mediterranean, Russia, the Middle East, Persia/Iran, Central Asia, China and beyond - as well as on the histories of climate, natural resources and connectivities.
The Times has desribed Peter as 'a literary star', while the BBC calls him a 'rock star don', as do The New Statesman, VLT (Sweden) and Helsingin Sanomat (Finland). 'Frankopan is special', says Business Standard (India). Brazil's DCM magazine has called him 'the first great historian of the 21st century.'
Silk Roads was named The Daily Telegraph's History Book of the Year 2015. it went to Number One in the Sunday Times Non-Fiction charts, remaining in the Top 10 for nine months in a row, as well as being #1 in China, India and many other countries around the world, selling more than 2m copies. It is one of 'ten books that change how you see the world' (The Times). It was named one of the 'Books of the Decade' 2010-20 by the Sunday Times.
His follow-up, The New Silk Roads, is a 'masterly-mapping out of anew world order', according to the Evening Standard, and 'a brilliant guide to terra incognita' (Sunday Times) that is reminiscent of Tolstoy (Daily Telegraph). It won the Human Sciences prize of the Carical Foundation in 2019
In his latest book, The Earth Transformed: An Untold History, Peter looks at environmental history, at climate and the ways it has shaped the human and natural past. It is 'a vast, learned and timely work', says The Sunday Times - a 'brilliant sequel to the Silk Roads'; it is 'an endlessly fascinating book', according to The Times, 'a dazzling compendium of global research' (Spectator), 'masterly and fascinating' (Observer) and 'an epic historical saga' (TLS). It is 'a remarkable piece of work' (Indian Express), 'this is a book every academician and policymaker must read' (Tribune India).
According to Walter Scheidel in The Financial Times: 'Humanity has transformed the Earth: Frankopan transforms our understanding of history.'
Peter is 'spectacularly learned' says Vogue India. Listening to him talk about The Earth Transformed is 'like an IV injection of another sort. This is intellectual enrichment, delivered straight into the brain.'
In December 2018, The Silk Roads was named one of the 25 most influential books translated into Chinese in the last 40 years, alongside One Hundred Years of Solitude, Pride and Prejudice, Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby. In 2019, he won the prestigious Calliope Prize of the German Emigration Center, one of the richest prizes for the Humanities in Germany.
In 2016-18, Peter's Songlines audio channel in which he chose his favourite pieces of world music was part of British Airways' In-Flight Entertainment system. In 2018, The Silk Roads was chosen as part of the Government of Pakistan's Read to Lead program to encourage literacy in the country. It was the inspiration for a new character in The Vikings mini-series.
He has collaborated with Katie Melua and students at Oxford to create music based inspired by The Silk Roads.
He works on the history and politics of the Mediterranean, Russia, the Middle East, Persia/Iran, Central Asia, China and beyond - as well as on the histories of climate, natural resources and connectivities.
The Times has desribed Peter as 'a literary star', while the BBC calls him a 'rock star don', as do The New Statesman, VLT (Sweden) and Helsingin Sanomat (Finland). 'Frankopan is special', says Business Standard (India). Brazil's DCM magazine has called him 'the first great historian of the 21st century.'
Silk Roads was named The Daily Telegraph's History Book of the Year 2015. it went to Number One in the Sunday Times Non-Fiction charts, remaining in the Top 10 for nine months in a row, as well as being #1 in China, India and many other countries around the world, selling more than 2m copies. It is one of 'ten books that change how you see the world' (The Times). It was named one of the 'Books of the Decade' 2010-20 by the Sunday Times.
His follow-up, The New Silk Roads, is a 'masterly-mapping out of anew world order', according to the Evening Standard, and 'a brilliant guide to terra incognita' (Sunday Times) that is reminiscent of Tolstoy (Daily Telegraph). It won the Human Sciences prize of the Carical Foundation in 2019
In his latest book, The Earth Transformed: An Untold History, Peter looks at environmental history, at climate and the ways it has shaped the human and natural past. It is 'a vast, learned and timely work', says The Sunday Times - a 'brilliant sequel to the Silk Roads'; it is 'an endlessly fascinating book', according to The Times, 'a dazzling compendium of global research' (Spectator), 'masterly and fascinating' (Observer) and 'an epic historical saga' (TLS). It is 'a remarkable piece of work' (Indian Express), 'this is a book every academician and policymaker must read' (Tribune India).
According to Walter Scheidel in The Financial Times: 'Humanity has transformed the Earth: Frankopan transforms our understanding of history.'
Peter is 'spectacularly learned' says Vogue India. Listening to him talk about The Earth Transformed is 'like an IV injection of another sort. This is intellectual enrichment, delivered straight into the brain.'
In December 2018, The Silk Roads was named one of the 25 most influential books translated into Chinese in the last 40 years, alongside One Hundred Years of Solitude, Pride and Prejudice, Catcher in the Rye and The Great Gatsby. In 2019, he won the prestigious Calliope Prize of the German Emigration Center, one of the richest prizes for the Humanities in Germany.
In 2016-18, Peter's Songlines audio channel in which he chose his favourite pieces of world music was part of British Airways' In-Flight Entertainment system. In 2018, The Silk Roads was chosen as part of the Government of Pakistan's Read to Lead program to encourage literacy in the country. It was the inspiration for a new character in The Vikings mini-series.
He has collaborated with Katie Melua and students at Oxford to create music based inspired by The Silk Roads.
Peter's books The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, The New Silk Roads: The Future and Present of the World and The Earth Transformed have been translated into forty languages.
The Silk Roads:
Sunday Times Book of the Decade 2010-19
Daily Telegraph History Book of the Year 2015
The Times, Number One Non-Fiction Bestseller
Sunday Times, Number One Non-Fiction Bestseller
Evening Standard, Number One Bestseller
UK, #1 Bestseller; China, #1 Bestseller; India, #1 Bestseller
UAE #1 Bestseller
New York Times Top 10 Bestseller; Washington Post Top 10 Bestseller; Der Spiegel Top 10 Bestseller; Het Parool Top 10 Bestseller; L'Express Top 10 Bestseller
Le Point 25 Palmarès of 2017; L'Histoire, Les Livres de l'année 2018
Runner-up Le Prix Européen 2018
The Earth Transformed:
UK #2 Bestseller; Netherlands Top 10 Bestseller; Canada Top 10 Bestseller; India Top 10 Bestseller
BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week
The Times Book of the Week; Sunday Times Book of the Week; Independent Book of the Month; The Guardian Book of the Day
Wall Street Journal Best Books April 2023
The Times Best Books of 2023 So Far
'Widely considered to be some of the best contemporary treatises on the future of global political and economic history' (Fortune India)
'I know of no volume that tells the story with the breadth and depth of Frankopan’s The Earth Transformed. The book’s scope is extraordinary' (Prospect)
'Historical epic of dazzling range, ambition and achievement' (Observer)
'Breathtaking and addictively readable' (Daily Telegraph)
'Fearless and brilliant' (The Guardian)
'Dazzlingly good' (Evening Standard)
'Magnificent, erudite and gripping' (La Repubblica)
'Immensely entertaining....it is difficult to do justice to a book so ambitious, so detailed and so fascinating as this one.' (The Times)
'A magnificent book' Edouard Philippe, Prime Minister of the Republic of France (Le Point)
'A magnificent study....swashbuckling history...written with verve and precision' (Sunday Times)
'Not only the most important history book for years, but the most important for decades' (Berliner Zeitung)
'Magnificent' (Prospect)
'Breathtaking' (Foreign Policy)
Brilliant anaylsis' (Daily Times, Pakistan)
'No reader will leave The New Silk Roads with her sense of the state of the world unchanged.' (TLS)
'Monumental…prodigious…astonishing. Frankopan is an exhilarating companion for the journey along the routes which conveyed silk, slaves, ideas, religion, and disease, and around which today may hang the destiny of the world’ (Vanity Fair)
'Epic study - a book of dazzling range and ambition' (New Statesman)
'Brilliant threads...a history of the world that shunts the centre of gravity eastward' (The Economist)
'Beautifully constructed, a terrific and exhilarating read and a new perspective on world history (History Today)
'Riveting' (Sunday Telegraph)
'A Herodotus for the 21st Century' (Irish Left Review)
'Unputdownable' (L'Orient Littéraire)
'Enticing, sometimes enchanting' (Sydney Morning Herald)
'Breathtaking' (New Zealand Herald)
'Perfect pool-side reading' (TLS)
'Formidable and fascinating' (The Times)
'Completely addictive' (Dagbladet)
'Superb' (The Australian)
'Essential in shifting Eurocentric views – and is also a thumping good read' (Sunday Times, South Africa)
'A dazzling piece of historical writing' (South China Morning Post)
'Hugely ambitious...jam-packed with stories' (China Daily)
'An instant classic' (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
'A brave, subtly personal project of inspiriting ambition and epic scope, full of unexpected connections.' (New York Review of Books)
'Magisterial and essential' (La Revue)
'Superb...exceptional....indispensible' (Dallas Morning News)
'Majestic...brilliant....extraordinary erudition...dazzling' (Open Magazine, India)
'An exhilarating roller-coaster ride...masterful and engrossing' (Business Standard, India)
'Peter Frankopan is an exceptional historian' (Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden)
'Brilliant' (Die Zeit)
'Astonishing' (Le Point)
'Superb' (Daily Courier, Canada)
'Put simply, a must for anyone interested in history and geography over the centuries.' (VG, Norway)
'Exhilarating...here is a work for our networked age' (The National, UAE)
Silk Roads is published by Bloomsbury, by Knopf (USA), Shanghai Dook (China), Het Spectrum (Netherlands), Rowohlt Berlin (Germany), Critica (Spain), Pegasus (Turkey), GW Foksal (Poland), Mate (Croatia) Cum Libro (Korea) and Linking (Taiwan).
The Silk Roads:
Sunday Times Book of the Decade 2010-19
Daily Telegraph History Book of the Year 2015
The Times, Number One Non-Fiction Bestseller
Sunday Times, Number One Non-Fiction Bestseller
Evening Standard, Number One Bestseller
UK, #1 Bestseller; China, #1 Bestseller; India, #1 Bestseller
UAE #1 Bestseller
New York Times Top 10 Bestseller; Washington Post Top 10 Bestseller; Der Spiegel Top 10 Bestseller; Het Parool Top 10 Bestseller; L'Express Top 10 Bestseller
Le Point 25 Palmarès of 2017; L'Histoire, Les Livres de l'année 2018
Runner-up Le Prix Européen 2018
The Earth Transformed:
UK #2 Bestseller; Netherlands Top 10 Bestseller; Canada Top 10 Bestseller; India Top 10 Bestseller
BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week
The Times Book of the Week; Sunday Times Book of the Week; Independent Book of the Month; The Guardian Book of the Day
Wall Street Journal Best Books April 2023
The Times Best Books of 2023 So Far
'Widely considered to be some of the best contemporary treatises on the future of global political and economic history' (Fortune India)
'I know of no volume that tells the story with the breadth and depth of Frankopan’s The Earth Transformed. The book’s scope is extraordinary' (Prospect)
'Historical epic of dazzling range, ambition and achievement' (Observer)
'Breathtaking and addictively readable' (Daily Telegraph)
'Fearless and brilliant' (The Guardian)
'Dazzlingly good' (Evening Standard)
'Magnificent, erudite and gripping' (La Repubblica)
'Immensely entertaining....it is difficult to do justice to a book so ambitious, so detailed and so fascinating as this one.' (The Times)
'A magnificent book' Edouard Philippe, Prime Minister of the Republic of France (Le Point)
'A magnificent study....swashbuckling history...written with verve and precision' (Sunday Times)
'Not only the most important history book for years, but the most important for decades' (Berliner Zeitung)
'Magnificent' (Prospect)
'Breathtaking' (Foreign Policy)
Brilliant anaylsis' (Daily Times, Pakistan)
'No reader will leave The New Silk Roads with her sense of the state of the world unchanged.' (TLS)
'Monumental…prodigious…astonishing. Frankopan is an exhilarating companion for the journey along the routes which conveyed silk, slaves, ideas, religion, and disease, and around which today may hang the destiny of the world’ (Vanity Fair)
'Epic study - a book of dazzling range and ambition' (New Statesman)
'Brilliant threads...a history of the world that shunts the centre of gravity eastward' (The Economist)
'Beautifully constructed, a terrific and exhilarating read and a new perspective on world history (History Today)
'Riveting' (Sunday Telegraph)
'A Herodotus for the 21st Century' (Irish Left Review)
'Unputdownable' (L'Orient Littéraire)
'Enticing, sometimes enchanting' (Sydney Morning Herald)
'Breathtaking' (New Zealand Herald)
'Perfect pool-side reading' (TLS)
'Formidable and fascinating' (The Times)
'Completely addictive' (Dagbladet)
'Superb' (The Australian)
'Essential in shifting Eurocentric views – and is also a thumping good read' (Sunday Times, South Africa)
'A dazzling piece of historical writing' (South China Morning Post)
'Hugely ambitious...jam-packed with stories' (China Daily)
'An instant classic' (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
'A brave, subtly personal project of inspiriting ambition and epic scope, full of unexpected connections.' (New York Review of Books)
'Magisterial and essential' (La Revue)
'Superb...exceptional....indispensible' (Dallas Morning News)
'Majestic...brilliant....extraordinary erudition...dazzling' (Open Magazine, India)
'An exhilarating roller-coaster ride...masterful and engrossing' (Business Standard, India)
'Peter Frankopan is an exceptional historian' (Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden)
'Brilliant' (Die Zeit)
'Astonishing' (Le Point)
'Superb' (Daily Courier, Canada)
'Put simply, a must for anyone interested in history and geography over the centuries.' (VG, Norway)
'Exhilarating...here is a work for our networked age' (The National, UAE)
Silk Roads is published by Bloomsbury, by Knopf (USA), Shanghai Dook (China), Het Spectrum (Netherlands), Rowohlt Berlin (Germany), Critica (Spain), Pegasus (Turkey), GW Foksal (Poland), Mate (Croatia) Cum Libro (Korea) and Linking (Taiwan).
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To read profiles on Peter and his work, in The Times and in Intelligent Life, click on the logo to the left
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