As part of our commitment to making globally significant scholarship accessible to Central Asian audiences, CAPS Unlock translated and published Kazakh and Russian editions of Peter Frankopan’s The Earth Transformed: An Untold History.
This book, a sweeping exploration of how climate and the environment shaped human history, offered a new perspective on the forces that influenced civilizations, economies, and geopolitical shifts over time.
Frankopan, renowned for his work The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, presented a meticulously researched narrative that underscored how climate change played a defining role in shaping societies. From the fall of empires to the emergence of new political and economic orders, The Earth Transformed challenged readers to rethink history—not as a series of human-driven events alone, but as a complex interaction between people and their environment.
For Central Asia, a region historically shaped by shifting ecological and climatic conditions, this book held particular relevance. From the rise and fall of Silk Road civilizations to contemporary challenges posed by desertification, water shortages, and extreme weather, the themes explored in The Earth Transformed resonated deeply with the realities faced by Central Asian policymakers, scholars, and citizens.
The publication of The Earth Transformed in Kazakh and Russian was part of CAPS Unlock’s ongoing book translation initiative, which aimed to bring leading academic works into local languages. Following the success of our previous project translating Francis Fukuyama’s Liberalism and Its Discontents, this effort continued our mission to expand access to critical ideas, deepen intellectual discourse, and encourage informed debate across the region.
The book was officially launched in August 2024 in Almaty, with a public discussion featuring Peter Frankopan. The event provided an opportunity for scholars, students, and the general public to engage with the book’s key themes and reflect on their implications for Central Asia.
The translated editions of The Earth Transformed became available for purchase, with copies distributed through select bookstores and online platforms. CAPS Unlock invited readers across the region to explore this landmark work and reconsider the role of climate in shaping history.
