A brief history of the world in 47 borders surprising stories behind the lines on our maps

A fascinating and surprising history of the world told through the lines people have drawn on maps People have been drawing lines on maps for as long as there have been maps to draw on. Sometimes rooted in physical geography, sometimes entirely arbitrary, these lines might often have looked very dif...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Elledge, Jonn (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York, NY : The Experiment, [2024]
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Summary:A fascinating and surprising history of the world told through the lines people have drawn on maps People have been drawing lines on maps for as long as there have been maps to draw on. Sometimes rooted in physical geography, sometimes entirely arbitrary, these lines might often have looked very different if a war or treaty or the decisions of a handful of tired Europeans had gone a different way. By telling the stories of these borders, we can learn a lot about how political identities are shaped, why the world looks the way it does-and about human folly. From the Roman attempts to define the boundaries of civilization, to the secret British-French agreement to carve up the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, to the reason why landlocked Bolivia still maintains a navy, this is a fascinating, witty, and surprising look at the history of the world told through its borders.
Item Description:Includes index.
"Originally published in the UK as A History of the World in 47 Borders: The Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps by Wildfire, an imprint of Headline Publishing Group" -- Title page verso.
Physical Description:xii, 355 pages : maps ; 24 cm
ISBN:9781891011573
189101157X
9781891011580
1891011588
Author Notes:Jonn Elledge's previous books include The Compendium of (Not Quite) Everything and Conspiracy: A History of Boll*cks Theories, and How Not to Fall for Them. At the New Statesman, he created and ran its urbanism-focused CityMetric site, spending six happy years writing about cities, maps, and borders. He lives in London.