Borderlines

Informationen zum Autor Lewis Baston has written on British politics and the electoral landscape for nearly 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 , and Radio 4's PM and The World Tonight . He also recently appeared as a 'border expert' on Tim Marshall's series about borderlands for The Compass. Klappentext An illuminating history of twenty-one key borderlines that demarcate Europe, and what they can tell us about the past, present and future of Europe. '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' Anthony Seldon Europe's internal borders have rarely been 'natural'; they have more often been created by accident or force. Successive powers have redrawn the map of our continent, with varying degrees of success: the fingerprints of Napoleon, Alexander I, Castlereagh, Napoleon III and Bismarck are all there, but the present shape of Europe is mostly the work of the Allies in 1919 and Stalin in 1945. In Borderlines , writer and political historian Lewis Baston journeys along and across key borders from west to east Europe, to explore their history. He explores how places and people heal from the scars, physical and psychological, left by a Europe of ethnic cleansing and barbed wire fences. And he searches for a better European future amid the ravages of Brexit, COVID and war - finding it in unexpected places, scattered from the back lanes of rural Ireland to the Viennese-style coffee houses of the elegant Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi. A work of contemporary history that will appeal to readers of Tim Marshall but also Cal Flyn, Borderlines is a wry but ultimately optimistic look at Europe from its edges, the places where the questions and contradictions are sharpest - the cracks where the light gets in. Vorwort A history of twenty-one key borderlines that demarcate Europe, and what they can tell us about the past, present and future of our continent. From a political historian and Tim Marshall's 'borders expert'. Zusammenfassung An illuminating history of twenty-one key borderlines that demarcate Europe, and what they can tell us about the past, present and future of Europe. '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' Anthony Seldon Europe's internal borders have rarely been 'natural'; they have more often been created by accident or force. Successive powers have redrawn the map of our continent, with varying degrees of success: the fingerprints of Napoleon, Alexander I, Castlereagh, Napoleon III and Bismarck are all there, but the present shape of Europe is mostly the work of the Allies in 1919 and Stalin in 1945. In Borderlines , writer and political historian Lewis Baston journeys along and across key borders from west to east Europe, to explore their history. He explores how places and people heal from the scars, physical and psychological, left by a Europe of ethnic cleansing and barbed wire fences. And he searches for a better European future amid the ravages of Brexit, COVID and war - finding it in unexpected places, scattered from the back lanes of rural Ireland to the Viennese-style coffee houses of the elegant Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi. A work of contemporary history that will appeal to readers of Tim Marshall but also Cal Flyn, Borderlines is a wry but ultimately opti...

Vorwort
A history of twenty-nine European borderlines from a political analyst and Tim Marshall's 'borders expert'.

Klappentext

'Thrillingly unique, knowledgeable, perceptive and profound' IAN DUNT
*
'Extraordinarily perceptive and original'* ANTHONY SELDON

'Refreshing and important' RAFAEL BEHR

'A light-footed journey along the fault lines of history. Baston reveals a forgotten Europe.' KATJA HOYER

A riveting history of Europe told through twenty-nine key borders that define the past, present and future of our continent

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.