Borderlines
The fascinating history of Europe in 29 borders from leading political analyst and Tim Marshall's 'borders expert'
Published on 6. June 2024
Book
Hardback
336 pages
978-1-3997-2376-3 (ISBN)
Description
A history of Europe unlike any other: the perfect Father's Day gift for dad!
'One of the most engaging and fascinating histories of Europe I've read for years.' DOMINIC SANDBROOK, co-host of The Rest Is History podcast
Europe's internal borders have rarely been 'natural'; they have more often been created by accident or force.
In Borderlines, political historian Lewis Baston journeys along twenty-nine key borders from west to east Europe, examining how the map of our continent has been redrawn over the last century, with varying degrees of success. The fingerprints of Napoleon, Alexander I, Castlereagh, Napoleon III and Bismarck are all there, but today's map of Europe is mostly the work of the Allies in 1919 and Stalin in 1945.
To journey to the centre of the story of Europe, Baston takes us to its edges, bringing to life the fascinating and often bizarre histories of these border zones. We visit Baarle, the town broken into thirty fragments by the Netherland-Belgium border, and stop in Ostritz, the eastern German town where Nazis held a rock festival. We meander the back lanes of rural Ireland, and soak up the atmosphere in the coffee houses of the Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi. Through these borderlands, Baston explores how places and people heal from the scars left by a Europe of ethnic cleansing and barbed wire fences, and he searches for a better European future - finding it in unexpected places.
'Highly original and insightful' PD SMITH, GUARDIAN
'Thrillingly unique, knowledgeable, perceptive and profound' IAN DUNT
'An eye-opening read that combines Baston's travels along Europe's fault lines with incredible insights on how they got there in the first place.' KATJA HOYER
'Beautiful. A true gem... [his] unique take on human nature through the history and heritage of the borderlands ends up being deeply moving.' - IRISH INDEPENDENT
'Extraordinarily perceptive and original' ANTHONY SELDON
'Refreshing and important' RAFAEL BEHR
'One of the most engaging and fascinating histories of Europe I've read for years.' DOMINIC SANDBROOK, co-host of The Rest Is History podcast
Europe's internal borders have rarely been 'natural'; they have more often been created by accident or force.
In Borderlines, political historian Lewis Baston journeys along twenty-nine key borders from west to east Europe, examining how the map of our continent has been redrawn over the last century, with varying degrees of success. The fingerprints of Napoleon, Alexander I, Castlereagh, Napoleon III and Bismarck are all there, but today's map of Europe is mostly the work of the Allies in 1919 and Stalin in 1945.
To journey to the centre of the story of Europe, Baston takes us to its edges, bringing to life the fascinating and often bizarre histories of these border zones. We visit Baarle, the town broken into thirty fragments by the Netherland-Belgium border, and stop in Ostritz, the eastern German town where Nazis held a rock festival. We meander the back lanes of rural Ireland, and soak up the atmosphere in the coffee houses of the Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi. Through these borderlands, Baston explores how places and people heal from the scars left by a Europe of ethnic cleansing and barbed wire fences, and he searches for a better European future - finding it in unexpected places.
'Highly original and insightful' PD SMITH, GUARDIAN
'Thrillingly unique, knowledgeable, perceptive and profound' IAN DUNT
'An eye-opening read that combines Baston's travels along Europe's fault lines with incredible insights on how they got there in the first place.' KATJA HOYER
'Beautiful. A true gem... [his] unique take on human nature through the history and heritage of the borderlands ends up being deeply moving.' - IRISH INDEPENDENT
'Extraordinarily perceptive and original' ANTHONY SELDON
'Refreshing and important' RAFAEL BEHR
Reviews / Votes
A wonderful book, and one of the most engaging and fascinating histories of Europe I've read for years. Roaming from the fields of Ireland to the towns of western Ukraine, Lewis Baston is the perfect guide, full of curiosity and insight. It turns a familiar story into something strange, surprising and often intensely moving. -- DOMINIC SANDBROOK, author of WHO DARES WINS and co-host of THE REST IS HISTORY Highly original and insightful...Rich in history and memorable anecdotes, this is an ambitious and affectionate attempt to describe the glorious complexity and diversity of Europe. -- PD SMITH * GUARDIAN * His great strength is his ability to bring everything alive through his description of the places he goes and the people he meets... Baston's writing is beautiful, and it is combined with a sense of humour and a genuine love and interest for the border regions he visits. But what makes Borderlines a true gem is his ability to connect the history of these borderlands to the people who lives there over the centuries and the people who live there now...[Baston's] unique take on human nature through the history and heritage of the borderlands ends up being deeply moving. * IRISH INDEPENDENT * Free of dogma or indeed of anything even remotely stereotypical. Lewis Baston's writing is thrillingly unique, knowledgeable, perceptive and profound. This is the story of Europe told through the changing places, where one thing becomes another and two things can be true at the same time, blending psychology, travel, politics, history and geography. I'm not sure I've ever read anything quite like it. 'A light-footed journey along the fault lines of history. Baston reveals a forgotten Europe, one that was and may have been.' * Beyond the Wall * 'A stunningly topical and timely book. Lewis Baston is a remarkable talent, very gifted as a writer and quite extraordinarily perceptive and original in his thinking' A thoughtful tour of boundaries, identities and places in-between... refreshing and important. An original, charming and thought-provoking journey along many Europe's most interesting borders, visible, invisible and fiercely contested * Homelands: A Personal History of Europe * 'Lewis Baston has incredibly strong research skills, thanks to his brilliant ability to make connections combined with an extraordinary wealth of knowledge. His writing is clear, witty and charming' 'The past, that foreign country, haunts Borderlines in often surprising and unexpected ways... A vivid, deeply researched and fascinating story.' * Reaction *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 237 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
544 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-3997-2376-3 (9781399723763)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Lewis Baston has written on British politics and the electoral landscape for more than thirty years, from polling analysis for the Financial Times to election results analysis for the Guardian. From 2003 to 2010 he was Research Director for the Electoral Reform Society, and from 2011 to 2015 he was Research Fellow at Democratic Audit. He has appeared on BBC Breakfast, The One Show and Sunday Politics, Radio 4's PM and The World Tonight, and on Tim Marshall's series about borderlands for The Compass.