Next time you switch on the news after reading this book, you will actually understand what the foreign affairs corespondent is rambling on about.
I suppose lots of fellow A Level students who studied geography may complain it sometimes felt like a prison, but this is not exactly what the title of this international bestseller refers to! No, this is as far as you could get from textbook-induced captivity, it is a thrilling dive into the world of global politics and the influence of geography within them, an insightful guide to the fascinating sphere of geopolitics.
Tim Marshall's masterpiece is centered around ten maps; Russia, China, USA, Western Europe, Africa, The Middle East, India and Pakistan, Korea and Japan, Latin America and The Arctic. A leading voice on foreign affairs, Marshall, armed with over twenty five years of reporting experience, unpicks every map, and analyses all factors contributing to current global political climates, ranging from ethnic tensions to tribal dynamics to energy races, framed by our planet's physical geography and topography. Marshall makes the convincing argument that even considering modern technological advances, we remain as a species constrained by the geographical hand nature has dealt us, whether this be Russia's century-old preoccupation with Crimea, the USA's river-related secret to success, or why Western Europe's location means it was destined to become a thriving trading region.
Prisoners of Geography is just under 300 pages absolutely packed with perceptive analysis, thorough answers and well-informed predictions. The style is fluid, clear and accessible to all. After having read this I feel sufficiently armed with the knowledge to actually understand news reports on foreign affairs and politics. As a traveler, it's provided me with a new angle, a new perspective with which to view the world, and the extent to which we are still at the mercy of nature in the 21st century. It is also useful in a practical sense, as I feel better equipped to travel to different places, provided with a broad sense of a destination or region's political climate, even if of course, politics isn't everything, and there is obviously lots more to places than simply how they are governed. This traveler's rant aside, Marshall's fascinating insights and enlightening anecdotes make this book impossible to put down. I think Nicholas Lezard's comment in the Evening Standard perfectly sums up the sense of awe that I'm trying to convey:
'Quite simply, one of the best books about geopolitics you could imagine: reading it is like having a light shone on your understanding...Marshall is clear-headed, lucid and possessed of an almost uncanny ability to make the broad picture accessible and coherent...the book is, in a way which astonished me, given the complexities of the subject, unputdownable...I can't think of another book that explains the world situation so well'.
Well said. I agree.
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