Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall - Paperback

This book will enlighten anyone who wants to know about how great countries come to be. Entertaining and informative! I love reading this. wish more books like this are available for students / school kids so they can enjoy Geopolitics :)

Valuable book above the world we're living in with easily written.

Ever wondered whether the current status quo is connected with the geopolitical history of nations.Well, this books provides the basis on which you can objectively build your final judgement. I enjoyed the sense of humor the writer incorporated to make this purely political product entertaining and readable.

id say that if you are ignorant on geopolitics and politics as a whole, this book may be a good starting point,

Super interesting book. Now I want to read more work from the author!

Very nice introduction to geopolitics but also useful for those who already have some knowledge about it. Very accessible and accurate (not biased in a political sense), I definitely recommend it even if it’s not the most recent and up to date book on the market. I LOVED the fact that there are maps included for each chapter (duh, it’s what the book is about), it’s always nice to have a clear picture of the areas being discussed, especially since the author delves into describing the geography of many, distant areas.

This is the best non-fiction book I have read this year so far. If you are interested in geopolitics and geography, this is clearly your choice. The 10 chapters (maps) are the following: Russia, China, USA, Western Europe, Africa, The Middle East, India and Pakistan, Korea and Japan, Latin America and The Artic. Here are some examples of the notes I took in the first three chapters: USA: -Geographically speaking, the USA is “blessed” for many reasons: the two oceans protect it from invasions, it has navigable rivers, fertile soil, significant natural resources (shale gas is trending now), etc. The great statesman Otto von Bismarck once said: “God takes special care of drunks, children and the United States of America”. -In 1803 the French sold Louisiana to the USA for only 15 million USD. The historian Henry Adams said: “Never did the United States get so much for so little”. In 1819 the Spaniards ceded Florida. In 1848 they advanced until the Rio Grande after winning the war with Mexico, in 1867 they bought Alaska, etc. The American Empire was getting ready to be a global superpower. -In 1940, the British swapped their ability to be a global power in exchange for help in remaining in the war. After the war, the Americans took their military bases abroad and became, officially, the indisputable Empire in the Western Hemisphere. Russia: -Russia is an energy giant and use its natural resources as a tool to gain political power. And to blackmail its neighbours. -The lack of a warm-water port with direct access to the oceans has always been Russia’s Achilles heel. This explains, in part, their obsession with annexing Crimea. -Russia’s biggest fear: NATO (1949) still exists and it is larger and closer to Russia’s borders than ever before, whereas the “USSR NATO”, The Warsaw Pact (1955), disappeared when the USSR collapsed. China: -China annexed the Tibet region in 1951 and it is unlikely to let it free. For other reasons, because the Tibet is the source of China’s great rivers (Mekong, Yangtze and Yellow) and holds a strategic position in the Himalayas next to its great Asian rival in the coming future: India. -The Chinese look at society very differently from the West. Western thought is infused with the rights of the individual; Chinese thought prizes the collective above the individual. -The Strait of Malacca (between Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia) is key for China’s trade and an obvious weakness in case of confrontations. China is investing huge amounts of money in its navy in order to control it. In conclusion: All powerful nations spend peacetime preparing for the day war breaks out. And, by the way, the rest of the book is even better.

Review: Tim Marshall's Prisoners of Geography I was fortunate to be enrolled into the SocialBookCo reviewer program and was sent Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography to review. Growing up I was always a devout reader. I loved books, loved collecting books, loved locking myself in my room and allowing my mind to enter new worlds, understand new concepts and live in the life of the characters of my book. Reading is what helped me get through most of my rocky childhood. I usually stuck to science fiction such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Divergent etc. Anything with action, adventure and a bit of suspense. When I received Prisoners of Geography I was super excited as I didn’t really know a thing about geopolitics. Tim Marshall did not disappoint. The book begins with a super power that every person on this planet has heard of before, a place where power and principles stand true today as they have in the past, Russia. My opinion of Russia and the culture and territory have changed in my 20s I must say the book has made me think extra hard of the plight Russia now faces. With its barren land, decline in population growth and restrictions from the other super powers of the world, the book made me feel a bit of concern and sincerity for Russia. By reading Prisoners of Geography, it sparked an interest to learn more and to research into what Tim Marshall describes as “six million square miles vast, eleven time zones vast; it is the largest country in the world”. Marshall begins each chapter by outlining the geographical barriers that influence the politics of the continent, the demographics and culture. He begins with the major bodies of water that help with foreign trade and go on to talk about deserts, mountains, plains, etc. Anything that affects the relationships of the country and its neighbors. He begins with Russia, which in my opinion was brilliant as Russia is so vast yet people such as myself from North America know very little. We know what history books have taught us and we know of the European countries as travel destinations but we don’t necessarily pay attention to the geopolitics of the countries and how it affects the country in which we live and their relationships. When we ask why it’s so hard to get visa’s, why oil prices fluctuate, why it’s cheaper to go to some places and not to others or why people are migrating it has to do in some sense with geopolitics and political ties that countries have made in the past. Marshall goes on to outline these very barriers and political outcomes for places such as China, United States of America, Western Europe and many others. The chapter that really peaked an interest, not that all of them didn't as each were enlightening in their own way but the chapter on Africa. Africa is a place in constant need yet sometimes we are not enlightened to why it has become the place we know today. Tim Marshall outlines the geographical barriers that Africa faces, the fight against diseases, the lack of medical information and supplies, the malnutrition and plight of about 75 million people and the ever existing internal wars that happen daily. Reading Prisoners of Geography has opened my eyes to each people's plights and fears and has provided me with an understanding of how much geography plays in the politics, cultures, immigration and safety of our planet. I did not expect much from Prisoners of Geography but I must say it has sparked a hunger for more information regarding geopolitics and has enticed me to research and learn more. That is what a great book does for its reader. It encompasses learning, the love for reading and affects the reader's’ feeling in some way. I appreciate SocialBookCo for sending me this book to review as I probably would have gone into a bookstore or seen this book on Amazon and not taken the chance on it. I am so glad I did through Social Books as now I am on a journey for more information, intrigued at the politics that will shape the world for our children and their children. I should’ve paid closer attention to geography class in high school, never knew it could be so interesting. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, you do not have to love geography or politics, but have the love for reading. This is definitely a great read and will spark an interest in history and political chess in which there is no definitive lines of the chessboard but instead mountains, bodies of water, deserts and forests. Loved this book.