The Power of Geography

This is a successor to one of my favourite non-fiction books of all time, the Prisoners of Geography, which talked about how the facts of how the land is formed affects the politics of various regions. I loved that book, and as a result have been working through the rest of Tim Marshall???s releases.

Fristly, the writing is incredibly accessible. It???s one of the things that drew me in after reading the first book by Marshall. Non-fiction can be dry, or difficult or dense to read but these books have all been a breeze to read and follow. There are also some moments when Marshall inserts his own personal connection to the topic he is writing about and it adds to the reading experience. I do recommend picking the books up physically if you can as the ability to easily flip back and forth to the maps being discussed are essential for me.

The sequel focussed less on the specifics of the geography of each region discussed and looked a lot on the history and politics, but I enjoyed that just as much as the first book. I really liked the final chapter on the future of colonising space and how that may play out.

I can???t wait to pick up more books by Tim Marshall!

Remarkable Look At Often Unnoticed Regions. Marshall's prior work in this space, Prisoners of Geography, was much lauded and at least a bit derided. Here, well, the exact same approaches and reasonings abound, so whatever you thought of that first text will likely be similar to your feelings about this text, where he analyzes regions that many don't think of. The Space chapter (the final chapter) actually discusses the real-world power plays that Matthew Mather's CyberStorm series of fiction books uses to spin some great yet fictional tales around, while other chapters such as that on Ethiopia, the Sahel, Iran, and Australia do remarkable jobs of showing both the history and current issues facing these regions. Truly an enlightening look at global issues, and one that everyone should read more as a “global politics 101” level of information, if for no other reason. Great work, and very much recommended.