Cover Image: The Power of Geography

The Power of Geography

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Member Reviews

Remarkable Look At Often Unnoticed Regions. Marshall's prior work in this space, Prisoners of Geography, was much lauded and at least a bit derided. Here, well, the exact same approaches and reasonings abound, so whatever you thought of that first text will likely be similar to your feelings about this text, where he analyzes regions that many don't think of. The Space chapter (the final chapter) actually discusses the real-world power plays that Matthew Mather's CyberStorm series of fiction books uses to spin some great yet fictional tales around, while other chapters such as that on Ethiopia, the Sahel, Iran, and Australia do remarkable jobs of showing both the history and current issues facing these regions. Truly an enlightening look at global issues, and one that everyone should read more as a "global politics 101" level of information, if for no other reason. Great work, and very much recommended.

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As a recent graduate of global studies and geography undergrad programs, it is impossible to have not heard about Tim Marshall's previous book. This sequel focuses on 10 different areas Australia, the Sahel, Greece, Turkey, the UK, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Space. It was refreshing for this book to address places that are not among the most covered areas. Marshall expertly balances the historical context and current events of each place. There were some current events that were covered well, like each area's climate change problems. However, others seemed to have been added as an afterthought, like the insights of the COVID-19 pandemic or the Biden Administration's stances. I would have enjoyed more analysis of the pandemic sections but I am sure that will come with time. Personally, the Space section was my favorite since it looked towards the future of how space technology will change our global relationships. With focus on both physical and human geography, Marshall's personal experiences and humor lighten some of the more heavy or dry topics in each section. Overall, I would recommend it to anyone with interest in world history and politics.

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I didn’t enjoy this as much as I anticipated having loved his other books . Having said that it was interesting. There were also issues with the format of the proof.

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Tim Marshall has probably taught me all of the geographical knowledge that I have. Like his other books, this looks at geography, history and geopolitics to tell the story of a country. Some sections I was fascinated and couldn’t read fast enough some were dry. The space section was very random to me.

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