Peter Frankopan, the Oxford historian who wrote The Silk Roads, sets out the seven historical forces he sees shaping today’s world.
Peter Frankopan, the Oxford historian who wrote The Silk Roads, sets out seven historical forces shaping today’s world in Barbican Hall at the Barbican Centre on Monday 18 January 2027.
Frankopan was born in London and studied at Jesus College, Cambridge. He has been a senior research fellow at Worcester College, Oxford, since 2000 and is now Professor of Global History there.
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, published in 2015, argued that history has been told too much from Europe. It became a global bestseller, and The New Silk Roads and The Earth Transformed followed.
His talk reads the present against that longer history. It runs from Trump’s interest in Greenland and the war in Ukraine to China’s reach, artificial intelligence and the race for critical resources.
One of his examples is the making of the United States by purchase and annexation. Texas joined the union in 1845, and the United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million.
Intelligence Squared brings him back by popular demand, and the evening ends with questions from the audience.