Tim Marshall takes us on a historic and contemporary tour of the world’s separated spaces, showing that Donald Trump is far from the first leader to attempt to shut out things they’re scared of.
The veteran foreign correspondent dryly explores most of the globe, highlighting attempts made, with varying success, to stall flows of people, money and ideas.
Trump’s eye-catching but as-yet unfulfilled plan to shut the US off from Mexico is a better-known example, along with the interminable situation in Israel and Palestine.
More interesting are those less well known; Communist China’s current battle with the internet and India’s bloodily hardline approach to Bangladeshi economic migrants.
It’s a very knowledgeable, timely book and a good primer on current problems in a longer-term context.
But it also felt a bit dessicated and methodical, needing a bit more of a flourish to offset the bleakness of the subject matter.
Book Review: Divided: Why We’re Living In An Age Of Walls by Tim Marshall
