A Brief History of the World in 47 Borders

Surprising Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps

By: Jonn Elledge

Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies

A fascinating and surprising history of the world told through the lines people have drawn on maps

People have been drawing lines on maps for as long as there have been maps to draw on. Sometimes rooted in physical geography, sometimes entirely arbitrary, these lines might often have looked very different if a war or treaty or the decisions of a handful of tired Europeans had gone a different way. By telling the stories of these borders, we can learn a lot about how political identities are shaped, why the world looks the way it does―and about human folly.

From the Roman attempts to define the boundaries of civilization, to the secret British-French agreement to carve up the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, to the reason why landlocked Bolivia still maintains a navy, this is a fascinating, witty, and surprising look at the history of the world told through its borders.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2024 by Jonn Elledge. (P)2024 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Various audiobooks have attempted to condense the history of the world into a reasonable listening time, but here the divisions between lands and nations provide a unique common denominator. Narrator Matthew Lloyd Davies has a reliable, highly agreeable voice, mellow with a bit of burr. It's especially effective when the narrative turns ironic and bemused.… Polished, informative, and often quite amusing, they are an ideal accompaniment for leisure or exercise, chores, bedtime, or the car.” —AudioFile Magazine

"A brilliant account of how these lines on a map shape lives, destinies, and economies. You’ll never look at a map in the same way again." —Stephen Bush, Financial Times columnist

"This is brilliant fun, explaining the modern world in enjoyably bite-sized chapters. It’s exactly the book you hope it will be." —Rob Hutton, author of The Illusionist

Interesting border topics

The author goes beyond the obvious border topics and gets into some more recent history, including aviation and space.

The writing (or maybe the narration?) comes across as more congenial/passive rather than authoritative.

Shallow and boring

Tried to cover everything, ended up with nothing in-depth or insightful. A lot of chapters don’t even include a map as companion. It’s a night and day difference with “prisoners of geography”. Not a fan of the performer either. Awkward rhythm. Unnatural pauses and emphasis. Will definitely avoid in the future.

Political Bias.

I had high hopes for this book. The author's left leaning bias was/is very evident.

No boundaries

There were no boundaries to the boring drawn out stories and to the middle school world history lesson. The attempt to be funny and cute just added to the misery. The catchy title caught me. More fool me!