leonajasmin's review against another edition
4.0
Most of my views for this book remain the same as what I thought about Prisoners of Geography. This book is quite enlightening for those who are less versed in International Relations, whereas it may not be too riveting for those more versed.
I found the Africa & Indian subcontinent chapters particularly interesting. I did feel like the UK chapter went a bit off tangent and had quite a bit of information that a non-Brit/non-Anglophile probably won't care much for. However, Marshall's sense of humour comes out mostly in this chapter whereas other chapters felt like an all information, no analysis.
There were many other areas which he mentioned in passing that I'd have been interested to learn more about. He briefly mentions the Baltic/Russia walls, Uzbekistan and South America. I'd have been interested in what he thought of them in more depth since he has a very readable writing style (although I don't always agree with his points).
Overall, I much preferred this book to Worth Dying For and would put it on par with Prisoners of Geography in terms of writing style. The main downfall for me was that it was too short for my liking.
I found the Africa & Indian subcontinent chapters particularly interesting. I did feel like the UK chapter went a bit off tangent and had quite a bit of information that a non-Brit/non-Anglophile probably won't care much for. However, Marshall's sense of humour comes out mostly in this chapter whereas other chapters felt like an all information, no analysis.
There were many other areas which he mentioned in passing that I'd have been interested to learn more about. He briefly mentions the Baltic/Russia walls, Uzbekistan and South America. I'd have been interested in what he thought of them in more depth since he has a very readable writing style (although I don't always agree with his points).
Overall, I much preferred this book to Worth Dying For and would put it on par with Prisoners of Geography in terms of writing style. The main downfall for me was that it was too short for my liking.
bootlessdora's review against another edition
4.0
I liked this book, it made me think and it made me uncomfortable, it challenged some of my views and made me put myself in other people's positions. This book is not perfect but what book about current politics is? I think Tim Marshall does his best to stay objective and even though his opinions/stances are noticeable (how could they not be?)you can still separate what is fact from his thoughts. The book's lesson is that a lot of issues are more nuanced than we think and that we should be looking for solutions instead of blame and punishment. Of course, what this book is missing is the way the world got affected by Covid which of course strengthened every wall there is. Nobody could've predicted the way the world has changed now but the fact that a lot of the things the world is struggling with now were already in motion in 2018 and 2017 is eye-opening. Covid accelerated a lot of things and made them visible but they aren't really new.
michael_k's review against another edition
Εξαιρετικά επίκαιρο πραγματεύεται το ακανθώδες θέμα των διαιρέσεων στο σύγχρονο κόσμο θίγοντας μια σειρά θεμάτων από συνοριακές διαφορές μέχρι το κυρίαρχο θέμα της μετανάστευσης.
Δίνει πολύτιμη και ξεκάθαρη εικόνα της κατάστασης στον κόσμο την τελευταία πενταετία και θέτει πλήθος ερωτημάτων στον σκεπτόμενο αναγνώστη.
Δείτε περισσότερα στο Ex Libris.
Δίνει πολύτιμη και ξεκάθαρη εικόνα της κατάστασης στον κόσμο την τελευταία πενταετία και θέτει πλήθος ερωτημάτων στον σκεπτόμενο αναγνώστη.
Δείτε περισσότερα στο Ex Libris.