by John Elledge
Paperback, £10.99
I love a lateral history. They are a great way of reading history without getting bogged down in some of the things that history books like to get bogged down in, such as dry analysis, endnotes, learning-worn-heavily, that sort of thing. They can also be a bit disappointing owing to brevity, repetition, concept-over-substance; their titles, ‘A History of the World in …’ , are statements of intent after all, so they ought to live up to them.
A History of the World in 47 Borders thoroughly and enjoyably lives up to its title. In 48 chapters, John Elledge walks the reader through a truly global tour of the national and cultural borders, ancient and modern and the periods in-between. We learn of quirks and political upheaval and the arbitrary cruelties of colonialism, and why Washington DC is the shape it is, and why not all of Italy is in Italy. And an absurd number of other things.
There is an abundance of fact (always a winner when it comes to history) and an equal abundance of anecdote, with not a single dull page. Elledge’s easy-going style is informative without being dense, and refreshingly jovial for a genre that is too often parochial; its approachability is all the more remarkable given some of the topics are, inevitably, politically contentious and culturally unpleasant.
It is, in short, one of those rare, quite marvellous history books, from which you will take away as much as you could possibly hope to learn, and a great deal more you did not expect to.