If you are looking for an informative and entertaining read I can heartily recommend A History of the World in 47 Borders. Jonn Elledge, the author, is an enthusiast especially for lists, the more eclectic and eccentric the better. His previous book was a collection of crackpot conspiracies which he proceeded to unpick. A History of the World in 47 Borders is a series of stand-alone chapters explaining the origins and impacts of forty-seven borders.
Thirty-eight of the borders are political and geographical and nine relate to the sea, the air and time. The borders he has chosen to examine range from the Great Wall of China via Feudal Europe and the Austrian Empire to the post First World War Middle East settlement and the Iron Curtain, from Kaliningrad to Washington DC and Detroit. As for sea, air and time they range from the meridian to the dateline and the laws of the sea. It all makes for a fun read, not least because of Elledge’s easy-going style and his eye for a colourful anecdote.
The book is divided into three main sections. The first section is described as Histories and looks at the creation of twenty-two different borders. They are examined semi-chronologically starting with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt and ending with Iron Curtain. The second section is described as Legacies and looks at the consequences of the establishment of sixteen more borders and their continuing aftermath, some international but some also domestic.
The third section is described as Externalities and it is here that Elledge looks at a range of agreements that are less obviously political and nationalist such as the carve up of Antarctica and time zones. Included as an afterthought and rather oddly described as a bonus, is a forty-eighth border, essentially a brief examination of the changing shape of Poland. It would have sat more easily in either of his first two sections.
There is no overarching theme to the book and the choice of borders between the Histories and the Legacies may on occasion seem somewhat arbitrary. However, the result is a book one does not need to read starting from Chapter One onwards. One can meander through, reading the chapters in whatever order takes one’s fancy without losing some important thread. That said, Elledge’s footnotes are definitely not to be missed. They are not only informative but also full of his sharp eye for the quirky.
Indeed, this is an enjoyable and often very amusing book that will add greatly to one’s knowledge and understanding of many of the lines that humans have drawn across the planet. I suspect that some of the author’s trenchant political comments will provide the grounds for heated discussions over the kitchen table and that the mine of information he has provided will certainly be a great source for quiz questions.
A History of the World in 47 Borders by Jonn Elledge is out now, published by Wildfire.
Header photo by Chuttersnap, courtesy of Unsplash