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By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean

The Birth of Eurasia

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By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean

By: Barry Cunliffe
Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
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About this listen

By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean is nothing less than the story of how humans first started building the globalized world we know today. Set on a huge continental stage, from Europe to China, it is a tale covering more than 10,000 years, from the origins of farming around 9000 BC to the expansion of the Mongols in the 13th century AD.

An unashamedly "big history", it charts the development of European, Near Eastern, and Chinese civilizations and the growing links between them by way of the Indian Ocean, the Silk Roads, and the great steppe corridor (which crucially allowed horse riders to travel from Mongolia to the Great Hungarian Plain within a year). Along the way, it is also the story of the rise and fall of empires, the development of maritime trade, and the shattering impact of predatory nomads on their urban neighbors.

Above all, as this immense historical panorama unfolds, we begin to see in clearer focus those basic underlying factors - the acquisitive nature of humanity, the differing environments in which people live, and the dislocating effect of even slight climatic variation - that have driven change throughout the ages and that help us better understand our world today.

©2015 Barry Cunliffe (P)2021 Tantor Australia, New Zealand & Oceania Civilization Europe Medieval Oceania World Middle Ages
All stars
Most relevant
Interesting subject but quality of narration poor: a flat, droning, monotone with some atrocious mispronunciations of various place names.

Spoilt by narrator

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I have dabbled in Ancient History all my life,ever since my brother and I saw a dig in the early stages in Somerset.
I have studied for Art History, taught it, in an Art Room and painted its echos for many years.
This book, on Audible has undone so many Guadiana knots.
Many, many thanks to all involved.

The clarity.

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As a synthesis of several thousand years of history and pre-history (from roughly the end of the last ice age to roughly the 15th century and Age of Exploration that unlocked sea routes to Asia), this is fairly solid - albeit it reads a bit like a succession of Wikipedia entries in places.

The trouble is that there's a thesis here - laid out neatly in the final chapter - that gets lost with all the sidetracks. To make sense of the flow of people and goods through Central Asia, do we really need diversions about the rise of Charlemagne? And if the rise of major political powers at either end of the trade routes - Rome, China, Persia, Islam - was part of the driving force, why so little attention paid to India, South East Asia, or even Egypt? And - really - did half the book need to be devoted to pre-history, when all there is to go on is sparse archaeological evidence and lots of repetitive speculation?

All this is made more frustrating by the narrator's hectoring tone - sounds like she should be standing at the front of an old-fashioned classroom with a cane in hand - and bizarre choices of pronunciation and emphasis. I've never previously encountered anyone refer to years as if they were just numbers (e.g. 1202 as "one thousand two hundred and two" rather than "twelve oh two". I'll be avoiding her in future.

Vast scope, doesn't quite deliver

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Disappointed by the narration.Flat and so hard to follow. Probably needs illustrations and maps so not suited as a audible book

Poor narration

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