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A Brief History of the World in 47 Borders: Surprising Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps

by Jonn Elledge

The histories held in a line on a map

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AlbakiReads Editorial

The histories held in a line on a map

Jonn Elledge uses 47 borders as entry points into a wider history of how territories have been defined and disputed. The examples range from early Egyptian maps and Roman boundaries to the Mason-Dixon Line, wartime plans for the Ottoman Empire, Detroit’s city limits, and Bolivia’s navy. Across these cases, borders emerge as contingent outcomes of conquest, treaties, alliances, chance, and ambition—not fixed features of the world. The book’s organizing idea connects political decisions with their lasting effects, while its varied examples move between large historical shifts and more particular stories attached to individual places.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in world history told through geography and borders
  • Those curious about how political decisions shape maps and territories
  • Readers who enjoy collections of historical stories organized around a central theme

Themes

Borders and territorial changeConquest, treaties, and alliancesThe contingency of political geographyLocal consequences of boundary-making

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

A single boundary might, upon closer inspection, reveal eons of history--from epic tales of conquest, treaties, and alliances to intimate, all-too-human stories of love, greed, and folly. None of the lines we know today were inevitable, and all might have looked quite different if not for the intricate interplay of chance and ambition. From the very first maps in Egypt to the Roman attempts to define the boundaries of civilization, from the profound shift in meaning of the Mason-Dixon Line to the secret British-French agreement to carve up the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, and from the dark consequences of Detroit's city limits to the intriguing reason why landlocked Bolivia still maintains a navy, this is a singular look at all of human history--told through its most captivating border stories.
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