Borders, Alexander C. Diener
Borders, Alexander C. Diener
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Borders
A Very Short Introduction (2nd Edition)

Author: Alexander C. Diener, Joshua Hagen

Narrator: Jamie Renell

Unabridged: 4 hr 38 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/09/2024


Synopsis

First published in 2012, Borders: A Very Short Introduction began with the premise that "we live in a very bordered world." The intervening decade has witnessed a flurry of events and developments that continue to highlight the centrality of borders in contemporary domestic and international affairs, as well as the interstices between the two, including sudden surges in migrant and refugees flows; renewed emphasis on traditional border security and wall construction; growing tensions concerning maritime sovereignty; rapid advances in cybersecurity, surveillance, and biometrics; expanded detention and deportation infrastructures; proliferation of transborder organizations; revived populist and nationalist sentiments; and protectionist and integrationist trade practices, to name some prominent examples from recent headlines.

This revised edition accounts for recent developments including Brexit, the 2015 migration crisis across Europe, efforts to build a border wall between the United States and Mexico, growing isolationist and nativist sentiments, demands for indigenous homelands, transnational protest movements, Russian cross-border incursions, and insurgencies and rebellions across much of North Africa and Southwest Asia.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ellie on April 25, 2024

"A Very Short Introduction" hits the nail of this book's contents right on the head. In terms of historical background, it went from the ancient near east to modern nation states (with a heavy heavy focus on the West) in two chapters, after which it only discussed very recent and modern border-relat......more

Goodreads review by Joma on December 26, 2020

This is more of a political theory (intro) text. As long as you know that going in, you'll enjoy it. Minor quibbles are the ahistorical (liberal historiographical jabs at 'communist countries/figures). And it would have been a much better text had the author/editors limited the scope they tried to co......more

Goodreads review by John on May 15, 2019

This is largely a history of national borders, but it does at least make mention of natural, ethnic, intellectual, aerospace, nautical and cultural ones. Though pretty well endowed with thought provoking claims and insights (for instance, the whole idea of fixed national borders is relatively new---......more

Goodreads review by Elisa on October 30, 2024

Meh it is a veery basic and general introduction but if you are not familiar with the topic at all it could be good......more

Goodreads review by Bryn on April 14, 2015

If you were an alien life form with a perfect knowledge of the English language, but no idea about borders/territories/democracies/monarchies, etc., then this would be the book for you. Otherwise, it felt not like a short introduction, as the title promises, but a long compilation of definitions of......more