Divided - BookWyrm.de

Taschenbuch

Am 8. Oktober 2018 von SIMON & SCHUSTER veröffentlicht.

ISBN:: 978-1-78396-374-4

"Tim Marshall ... analyzes the most urgent and tenacious topics in global politics and international relations by examining the borders, walls, and boundaries that divide countries and their populations. The globe has always been a world of walls, from the Great Wall of China to Hadrian's Wall to the Berlin Wall. But a new age of isolationism and economic nationalism is upon us, visible not just in Trump's obsession with building a wall on the Mexico border or in Britain's Brexit vote but in many other places as well. China has the great Firewall, holding back Western culture. Europe's countries are walling themselves against immigrants, terrorism, and currency issues. South Africa has heavily gated communities, and massive walls or fences separate people in the Middle East, Korea, Sudan, India, and other places around the world. In fact, at least sixty-five countries, more than a third of the world's nation-states, have …

"Tim Marshall ... analyzes the most urgent and tenacious topics in global politics and international relations by examining the borders, walls, and boundaries that divide countries and their populations. The globe has always been a world of walls, from the Great Wall of China to Hadrian's Wall to the Berlin Wall. But a new age of isolationism and economic nationalism is upon us, visible not just in Trump's obsession with building a wall on the Mexico border or in Britain's Brexit vote but in many other places as well. China has the great Firewall, holding back Western culture. Europe's countries are walling themselves against immigrants, terrorism, and currency issues. South Africa has heavily gated communities, and massive walls or fences separate people in the Middle East, Korea, Sudan, India, and other places around the world. In fact, at least sixty-five countries, more than a third of the world's nation-states, have barriers along their borders. There are many reasons why walls go up, because we are divided in many ways: wealth, race, religion, and politics, to name a few. Understanding what is behind these divisions is essential to understanding much of what's going on in the world today"--

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technicat@bookwyrm.social hat The age of walls von Tim Marshall besprochen

mostly good, somewhat ruined by the last chapters, I recommend the other book in this series on maps

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This book is a perfect example of how it's easy to recognize prejudice in other countries and knock yourself out explaining how people who start off every conversation with "I can't talk about immigrants because people will say I'm racist" (and then proceed to say something racist) aren't actually racist, they're the salt of the earth with valid complaints ignored by the elites. In this case, I'm not referring to post-election pundits here who complained Democrats focused too much on "identity politics" and ignored the valid complaints of everyone who voted MAGA, but the last chapter of this book, which after incisively depicting the walls dividing regions of the world, from Trump's border wall to Israel's Gaza wall to the metaphorical walls still reinforcing the caste system in India, apparently got too close to home with the issue of Brexit and can't just admit, yeah, we still have a lot …

This book is a perfect example of how it's easy to recognize prejudice in other countries and knock yourself out explaining how people who start off every conversation with "I can't talk about immigrants because people will say I'm racist" (and then proceed to say something racist) aren't actually racist, they're the salt of the earth with valid complaints ignored by the elites. In this case, I'm not referring to post-election pundits here who complained Democrats focused too much on "identity politics" and ignored the valid complaints of everyone who voted MAGA, but the last chapter of this book, which after incisively depicting the walls dividing regions of the world, from Trump's border wall to Israel's Gaza wall to the metaphorical walls still reinforcing the caste system in India, apparently got too close to home with the issue of Brexit and can't just admit, yeah, we still have a lot of racists. Admittedly, my opinion of Brexiters is tainted by having known some enjoying an upper middle class lifestyle in the US, while complaining about "unrestricted immigration" in both the UK and US (I will have a healthy dose of self-unawareness with those fish and chips), but it shows how out of touch people complaining about how people are out of touch are, it's not just taxi drivers competing for jobs, I mean, we have mega-rich racists, too, it's one thing that transcends class. The author is in fact a bit defensive about Western Europe in general (so he's probably not a Brexiter), complaining it's unfair to be singled out for racism and anti-immigration when it's worse elsewhere, but "see they do it too" is not the most useful lesson, and especially when he discusses anti-Islamic sentiment, it seems to me he overemphasizes the insularity of incoming groups and the presence of extreme religious views without acknowledging what I've seen commented elsewhere that the US, intentionally or not, has done a much better job of assimilating new groups, including Muslims. So the final chapter recommending Marshall Plan-style investment in foreign aid because you know, locals are just going to local, may be practical advice, but still, you should admit you have a problem.