Aurel Stein on the Silk Road

By Susan Whitfield.

Although the title says it is about Aurel Stein on the Silk Road, it is also a very nice and convenient resource about Stein's life in general. The narrative is arranged around contemporary photographs which make reading a whole lot easier than it would be in a strictly academic book.



Aurel Stein was a Hungarian-born explorer who became a naturalized British citizen and was even knighted for his accomplishments. His four expeditions to China were a major enterprise the consequences of which are still felt both in China and Britain. The Stein collection the bunk of which is now housed at the British Library, the British Museum, and the National Museum of India in Delhi is still bitterly missed by the Chinese who see these as stolen goods. Thus although Stein has been a major celebrity in his lifetime not only in Britain and the rest of Europe but also in the US and even Japan, he gradually grew to represent an evil of mythical proportion in the eyes of the Chinese.

But Susan Whitfield's Aurel Stein on the Silk Road is not so political and she does well to avoid these touchy issues. This nice book contains a wealth of information about Stein's life, his work as an explorer, and the exploration of the Silk Road in general. Definitely worth reading.