Prisoners of Geography
Overall verdict: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Why this book?
I will be far from the last, nor the first, to sing the praises of this book. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that upon first reading it, I found it mind-blowingly interesting (is that a phrase…?). I thought I knew a far bit about the world and I thought I had a sufficient foundation of geopolitical knowledge on which to build (I was training to be a geography teacher at the time) yet this book allowed me to stand corrected on that claim and taught me the essentials- all in a thoroughly enjoyable manner. Indeed, if you ever get the opportunity to hear Tim Marshall speak, do not miss it as he is as engaging in real-life as on paper.
The much-celebrated book spans the globe with each chapter covering a country or region and exploring how the past and present shaped, and continue to shape, the area. Tim Marshall also looks to the future and considers the ongoing implications of unique human and physical processes for geopolitics in the 21st century. If there was just one book to read in order to better your geographical and geopolitical knowledge, I would make it this one.
For students:
Why do borders still matter in a globalised 21st century world? Why are some regions seemingly so unstable? Why is America so interested in many distant countries? Reading the ‘Prisoners of Geography’ will explain so many of the things you hear on the news, see on the television and have learnt about in geography. Indeed, it will set the scene for further development of your knowledge- you’ll read this book and want to find out more.
For teachers:
There has been much written about the value of this book for teaching geography and so here I want to share the tangible ways in which I use the book in my teaching of the Edexcel A-Level. Below are the exerts that I use for teaching about contested borders as part of the ‘Migration, Identity and Sovereignty’ topic (section 8B.4 of the specification). The page numbers correspond to the 2016 paperback edition of the book:
p.121-122 The European division of Africa
A powerful summary of the legacy of colonialism in Africa
p. 123-125 The DRC
A discussion of ‘one of the biggest failures of European line-drawing’
p.144-145 The Middle East
A thought-provoking summary as to why we call it the Middle East- The Middle of what? East of where?
p.146 Sykes-Picot
The creation of nation states
p.156-159 Islamic State
Terrorist groups as a legacy of colonialism and suspensions of the ‘other’
The complexity of the India / Pakistan border:
p.184-185 The geography of the border
p.186-188 The significance of the British
p.188-190 The context of Pakistan
p.193- 194 Contested Kashmir
The publishers, Elliott & Thompson have recently published this grid mapping sections of the book to the A-Level Geography specifications and it is well worth a look for further ideas of how to use extracts of the book. More info for teachers can be found here.