The Age of Walls: How Barriers Between Nations Are Changing Our World by Tim Marshall

Tim Marshall, the New York Times bestselling author of Prisoners of Geography, offers “a readable primer to many of the biggest problems facing the world” (Daily Express, UK) 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 in Trump’s obsession with building a wall on the Mexico border, in Britain’s Brexit vote, and 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, more than a third of the world’s nation-states have barriers along their borders. Understanding what is behind these divisions is essential to understanding much of what’s going on in the world today. Written in Tim Marshall’s brisk, inimitable style, The Age of Walls is divided by geographic region. He provides an engaging context that is often missing from political discussion and draws on his real life experiences as a reporter from hotspots around the globe. He examines how walls, borders, and barriers have been shaping our political landscape for hundreds of years, and especially since 2001, and how they figure in the diplomatic relations and geo-political events of today.