Silk: The Thread that Tied the World; Byzantine Silk on the Silk Roads: Journeys Between East and West, Past and Present

Silk has a long and illustrious history as one of the world’s most luxurious fibers. Two recent books explore the story of silk from the development of sericulture in China to the modern era and the ways in which new ideas and technologies traveled the Silk Road alongside coveted silk textiles. Anthony Burton’s Silk: The Thread that Tied the World offers a good broad overview of the silk trade for those looking to understand its general history. Burton is a British historian who more recently has served as an advisor for textile and industrial documentaries for the BBC, including writing and presenting The Rise of King Cotton. Burton’s text reads like the narrative of a documentary, and illustrations on nearly every page provide excellent visuals of everything from silkworms to maps to the weaving process and finished textiles. Burton’s focus is on the role of silk as a catalyst for the spread of new ideas and the development of new technologies. His intent is to explain how “this remarkable substance produced by a rather boring looking moth had a central role in the development of so many aspects of our lives” (8). In Chapter 1, “Bombyx Mori,” Burton describes how silk thread is