Dr Peter Frankopan - The Silk Roads: Questioning the Eurocentric view of history

LJMU's National Identity Lecture Series in association with the Centre for Port and Maritime History and the Centre for the Study of International Slavery presents Dr Peter Frankopan - The Silk Roads: Questioning the Eurocentric view of history.
Dr Peter Frankopan is a historian at Oxford University, where he is a Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford and Director of the Oxford Centre for Byzantine Research. During this lecture he will talk about his best selling book 'The Silk Roads'.
Peter works on the history of the Mediterranean, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Russia and on relations between Christianity and Islam. He also specialises in medieval Greek literature, and translated The Alexiad for Penguin Classics (2009).
Peter often writes for the international press, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, MoneyWeek and has contributed to many TV and Radio documentaries. He was recently profiled in China Daily, China's largest English language newspaper, about his new book The Silk Roads: A New History of the World.
In December 2015, Silk Roads was named The Daily Telegraph's History Book of the Year 2015.

[@sarahbelegris1609]

A very interesting lecture - makes you wonder whether our history textbooks should include more world history and perhaps it's no wonder why so many of the areas of conflict are in parts of the world we have so little background knowledge and understanding of until these regions feature on the news

[@stephaniewilson3955]

Starts at 7 minutes in.

[@Draakie100]

I am shocked to see how few likes there are on this upload. To me it shows how many people are still "trapped in the hamster wheel", and don`t think about our planet and our society. We live in a world where many people think that money is everything. I believe that we should live in a world where finding inner peace is the only really important thing in life. Thanks for the upload...and for making people think :)

[@davidanderson9664]

Great lecture. I bought his belt and road book which was excellent also. D.A., J.D., NYC

[@gwho]

wth is DA JD NYC and why are you mentioning it?

[@kamimoku123]

Was the bookTHE Silk Road translated into Chinese, Russian and Arabic. If the answer is "yes", then it is worth buying and reading.

[@kbeetles]

At last! The arrogance and the ignorance of the so-called West is acknowledged.....cutting a huge part of even just Europe off the intellectual and cultural map is so indicative of the Western way of thinking. The "dreaded" Huns are still well remembered amongst the peoples of these old empires - and they are respected. We (Hungarians/Magyars) never got any respect from the peoples of Western Europe. The loss is yours, our hands were always reaching out to others.....

[@anhedonianepiphany5588]

"our hands were always reaching out to others" "The arrogance and the ignorance of the so-called West" It may serve you best to eliminate your own arrogance and ignorance, before pointing fingers. Perhaps you could work on your hypocrisy, also.

[@kbeetles]

mc love me - as a matter of fact I do listen to historians and anthropologists who specialise in the doing research in Asian countries. .....here we go again! Good example of ridiculing and dismissing someone straightaway - because you know everything and I am just an ignorant fool! Are you feeling better now, my friend?

[@kbeetles]

mc love me - I guessed so, you are just getting a kick out of trying to wind people up, my dear! What a lovely human being you must be...... Don't bother to reply - I will ignore you! Have a better life.....

[@ymhktravel]

Bad recording. Muffled.

[@Fransamsterdam]

ymhktravel Even a university in the UK can not record a human voice in the 21st century.

[@benderbrau1327]

Ok, something I'd like to point out given some of the comments I've seen: this notion that "our history books don't include enough world history" or "too much focus on Europe" is stupid and I'll explain why. First, I assume we're talking about education prior to college, and I assume we're talking about western nations. In primary school students are taught the basics, with the greatest focus placed on the history of the nations and cultures that their own is descended from. There is nothing unreasonable about this. Now, while I would agree that greater attention toward global history would be good, it should be understood that the constraints of time spent in class limit the amount of coverage different parts of world history can receive. It is understandable that if a condensed version of world history is to be taught, the parts most relevant to the understanding of one's own nation and culture would be the primary focus. The fact is: after primary education, most people stop caring about learning world history. I would be willing to bet that kids in China spend more time talking about the history of China and other East Asian cultures than anything else, as it should be. Once in college, students can choose to study world history in greater depth if they so choose, nothing is stopping them. The sad fact is that most people just don't care about world history, and rewriting textbooks for middle-schoolers or whatever isn't going to change that. All it will do is mean that the average person knows a little bit more about Paraguay, and a little less about the history of their own nation. In the end, it won't amount to jack if they stop after highschool. So at the very least we can hope they know about their own nation's history before they leave primary school.

[@devonmatthews6443]

The problem is that alot eurocentric do not give credit where credit is do... For instance, geometry, integral calculus, Hippocratic oath and medicine came from ancient egypt... It was very documented that Greek and Roman scholars would travel to Egypt to learn there knowledge which would take up to 40 years.. This is true with India and othe cultures...

[@stephenarmiger8343]

In Europe and specifically in the case of the speaker, freedom of speech exists. Freedom of the press. The speaker is exercising his right to write books and articles. His right to speak. Perhaps there are other KZbin videos where he is in conversation with others. This is interesting but we are only getting his perspective. We don’t know what he is missing or leaving out.

[@kevinbyrne4538]

Frankly a rather insubstantial lecture. Basically it boils down to: Europeans should know more about the cultures of the ancient Middle East and Central Asia.

[@devonmatthews6443]

@Terry Cupboards There is a difference to learning only your culture to lying or exaggerating about archievements...

[@devonmatthews6443]

@Terry Cupboards There are a few things you realize when studying other cultures: first knowledge and discoveries are past down to other cultures and some cultures rediscover technology/knowledge and two; Technology advancement is also based on investment/money... You can have the smartest people in the world in your country but if no one is willing to invest in it than it may not process.... This is one of the reasons why US has alot technical inbotations but Albania and others do not...

[@devonmatthews6443]

@Terry Cupboards Unfortunately, alot of countries have some corruption. Russia's gdp seems decent so I think they will be consistent Probably not like other countries but that may have to do with their partially democratic environment.... Ukraine is worst . There economy is very low... Unemployment is high ( 58 percent from 2018) and inflation has increased significantly.

[@ginamurray711]

Timbuktu, any mention?

[@LilyMarlen]

yes

[@davidshaw9262]

There has simply been more warfare, conflicts and unmitigated crime in the (Silk Road or Roads) area than the West Combined. An unwitting promoter of conflict. The difference is only one of magnitude in terms of rapid technological advances attributed to the west versus west. Which is a 20th century anomaly not to be repeated. A typically empire centric Brit-bro world view. Other than that, a nice insulated scholar. Please just ask yourself who is your culture's long term mentor ? Then critically examine and study the answers for all, including others. Peace

[@julianshepherd2038]

Most of Eurasia has been at war almost continuously for hundreds, no, thousands of years. Read more European history and tell me when peace starts. (It's last century, almost)

[@chazzcannon3614]

That banter is not aging well.

[@queblevia]

Interesting lecture but all that coughing recorded doesn’t really add anything to the lecture. 😅

[@_starter]

Europe is not a land mass continent. Asia is a continent and europe is a small part of it. Can we start the correction with this small detail?

[@felixphilippe7224]

Fuck off. It's Eurasia.

[@DieterHageman]

And yet we are talking English...

[@razielthesniper9241]

Europe-Asia-Africa are all land connected

[@rncmv]

@@DieterHageman so what?

[@benny19646]

@@DieterHageman cause yall ate too stupid to learn another language 💀

[@johnelkin6524]

alexander the great conquered the east because of vengeance, not for economic/industrial reasons

[@gwho]

he really takes his sweet time going over all of the obvious boring things that everyone already knows about the silk road , doesn't he?

[@robertgrey5993]

I can’t understand what he is saying.

[@MANCO513]

I'm very disappointed by his lack of information about Afghanistan and persia. There is not a single evidence about the existence of persian empire in persian history books and scripts. Persian empire has never ruled in Afghanistan. The other fact the today's persian language stammes from Afghanistan or the old Khorasan and Iran has always been part of Khorasan (Afghanistan) except the two dynasties (sasanid and safavid). Safavid is where iran got like indipendent after the fall of last great Khorasan empire, (Timurid Herat). Persian language stammes from cities of Herat (Aria) and Balkh (Bactria). As an Afghan I'm very disappointed about the fact that Iranians have brainwashed the world and also the less effort the world has put to find out what the truth is.

[@dxq3647]

Finally. Western historian always talk about things happening in Europe and dub them as "the worlds greatest" while ignoring everything else that goes on anywhere else.

[@benderbrau1327]

Wouldn't it depend on the class? A person with a degree in European history would spend most of their time talking about that, and a person with a degree in say, East Asian history would spend most of their time talking about East Asia. I don't know what you mean by "western historians always talking about European history...." or why that is a bad thing.

[@freddie7981]

@Terry Cupboards you make quite an interesting point.

[@devonmatthews6443]

@Terry Cupboards Well...you mean American and a few other European countries... Not all Europeans are successful... Plus.... There is a difference from believing has great potential to out right lying....

[@devonmatthews6443]

@Terry Cupboards Yes... Learning one cultures tends to believe that culture is superior because some historians only show you that culture and it's achievements even though some of those achievements were discovered centuries or thousands of years before... It is good you are learning other cultures...keep it up...

[@devonmatthews6443]

@Terry Cupboards India, China and other cultures have innovated alot in the past and today... I was surprised to find out discoveries which were thought to be European but were Asian . This also is true with Africa and Native America

[@ahha1201]

Even the conquered have a history! Notice how the new face of white supremacy left out the 3rd novel in Homer's trilogy since you are referencing an ancient historian of European descent.