It’s easy to get complacent about maps. In our everyday lives, they are the things that get us from place to place: from the office to a meeting; from our hotel to a recommended restaurant; from the train station to some summer wedding venue in the back of beyond… We forget they’re not simply a guide to navigating the world; to some degree they define it. This isn’t just an airy philosophical point
- it’s a harsh & complex political reality. Luckily, Tim Marshall’s latest book
- Prisoners of Geography
- is here to explain how politics is nothing without geography, in his usually crisp & compelling style. Each of the book’s ten chapters opens with a map that Marshall then uses as a jumping off point to explore political, economic & cultural issues from the past & present. What he really excels at is capturing the psychology of nations
- not just their leaders
- & giving maps, which we often see as passive participants in our lives, a vigour which politicians have to strive to tame. So, put down your newspaper! Turn off the TV! Fling your phone from the highest hill! Until you understand geopolitics, they’re no use to you. & until you’ve read Prisoners of Geography… Well, you get the idea.