The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World

By (author) James Crawford

Today, there are more borders in the world than ever before in human history. In this book James Crawford argues that our enduring obsession with borders has brought us to a crisis point: that we are entering the endgame of a process that began thousands of years ago, when we first started dividing up the earth.Beginning with the earliest known marker which denoted the end of one land and the beginning of the next, James follows the story of borders into our fragile and uncertain future – towards the virtual frontiers of the internet, and the shifting geography of a world beset by climate change. In the process, he travels to many borders old and new: from a melting border high in the glacial landscapes of the Austrian-Italian Alps to the only place on land where Europe and Africa meet; from the artist Banksy’s ‘Walled Off Hotel’ in the conflict-torn West Bank to the Sonoran Desert and the fault lines of the US/Mexico border..Combining history, travel and reportage, The Edge of the Plain explores how borders have grown and evolved to take control of our landscapes, our memories, our identities and our destinies. As nationalism, climate change, globalisation, technology and mass migration all collide with ever-hardening borders, something has to give. Can we let go of the lines that separate us? Or are we fated to repeat the mistakes of the past, as our angry, warming and segregated planet lurches towards catastrophe?

Reviews of The Edge of the Plain: How Borders Make and Break Our World

Praise for Fallen Glory: Crawford conveys superbly these absorbing tales of hubris, power, violence and decay * * Sunday Times * * Witty and memorable . . . moving as well as myth-busting — MARY BEARD * * Times Literary Supplement * * A beautiful book, and an admirable monument to the most spectacular buildings man's ingenuity and ambition have ever raised * * Mail on Sunday * * The most interesting book I have come across this year . . . magnificent — ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH * * New Statesman * * Crawford is a striking storyteller . . . resoundingly fine writing * * The Times * * Magnificent . . . Many of these buildings can be seen as microcosms of the decline and fall of whole civilisations * * Daily Telegraph * * I savoured each page. At no time was I tempted to rush through or skip ahead. The writing is that good, and each one of the author's subjects is fascinating and idiosyncratic . . . This is a book of and for the world * * Wall Street Journal * * Delightful . . . The chapter on the Twin Towers is one of the best such pieces I have read * * Scotland on Sunday * * The work of a talented storyteller who takes the reader on a grand expedition * * New York Journal of Books * *