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“... its place in world history. This intellectual legacy has been taken up with a vengeance by S.A.M. Adshead, by origin a historian of late imperial China, in recent works such as China in World History and Salt and Civilisation. His latest offering, on Central Asia, wastes no time on its opening page sorting out just what world history is for his purposes ...”

“... American forests that deer would journey hundreds of miles to reach. Such animals appear, as Dr Adshead says, to have an organic need of a certain quantity of salt which they are not tempted to exceed, whereas human beings, requiring a yearly intake of about three pounds, have always taken more than this when they could, and nowadays take far more. They ...”

“... Chinese civilisation on the Western world was minimal.’ That closes a door. By contrast, S.A.M. Adshead’s wide-ranging and learned China in World History is full of original ideas: it opens doors and windows and peep-holes in almost every corner of our past. An encyclopedia, to be a living creature, must show knowledge and imagination meeting, flirting ...”