Rating: 4 out of 5
In the newer style of “witty approachable history” which doesn’t go too deep, Mr Elledge has a relatively interesting if concise narrative on the way some countries have evolved. It doesn’t go too far to narrow one’s thinking exactly to either “borders” or “maps” when picking this book up—this type of a name is a common one when trying to present a straightforward view history, served piecemeal—, and the author has gone further here by saying this outright in the beginning. Many more places and times are described than one could expect from the “47” but this is done in 47 chapters: and each of these could be a full narrative on its own.
My main takeaways were related rather to the witticisms presented than to the history or indeed in one case to a paragraph I copied to a friend who related it to something completely ignored by Mr Elledge (of course, not directly related either!). Overall, I think it likely that any of the “really impactful” mentions would be already familiar to a reader well-versed in history, while some of the less well known (e.g., Baarle) are that for a reason: even though interesting and perhaps featuring in pub quizzes, their (continued) existence is more a curiosity.
I’d rather in the end that the author wrote about trains and public transport: this is what he does so well in his journalistic career, that these forays into “witty approachable history” don’t come off very well for me, even if I found this specific book relatively entertaining.
