Overview

Full Product Details

9781324037040

Table of Contents

Reviews

A richly essayistic travelogue.... Excellent. -- Steven Poole - The Guardian A lush, vivid, and powerful exploration of an idea as old as humanity, yet one which is implicated in today's most intractable global challenges. On the surface, borders appear to be about fixity. But Crawford digs far deeper. In his moving and evocative prose, we learn that borders morph, shift, and flex; they live, breathe-and sometimes choke. Crawford's border stories are richly populated, showing how borders are themselves the human performance of stories, often violent. Ghosts and phantoms haunt Crawford's terrain. From the frozen Arctic lands of Scandinavia to Africa's Sahel, Crawford travels far and wide in his pursuit of the meaning of borders. Drawing lines from deep history to today's fractured existence, The Edge of the Plain is an urgent call for comprehension of a practice that is destined to demarcate all our futures. -- David Rooney, author of About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks With The Edge of the Plain Crawford has created a beautifully observed and carefully researched collection of reportage on a diverse series of borders-of historic Palestine, in the Mediterranean, USA/Mexico, as well as other less-considered borders-those revealed by our rapidly changing climate, and the microscopic frontiers of the human body. Sometimes the view from the edge is the most illuminating one. -- Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being: A Grand Tour from the Cranium to the Calcaneum

Beguiling.... Crawford has a knack for finding original perspectives and observations.... If all borders are stories, we could start by telling better ones. Borders, after all, may be the places where we are divided. But they're also the places where we touch. -- Joshua Keating - Slate [A] lyrical tour of borders in the past and the present.... Crawford is at his best when surrendering to his propensity for reverie, an irrepressible, almost romantic sense of wonder that drives the reader from chapter to chapter. -- Kanishk Tharoor - Washington Post Pulls history, travelogue and reportage into an ambitious investigation.... The borders that mark our world are either ineffective, inhumane or both. The Edge of the Plain asks us to envision alternatives. -- Lauren Redniss - New York Times Book Review An innovative and eclectic study of borders past, present, and future.... Throughout, [Crawford] draws fascinating and original parallels between historical events.... This is a vital and eloquent reminder that borders control 'our landscapes, our memories, our identities.' -- Publishers Weekly, starred review Crawford uncovers the cost of these divisions in terms of human suffering, economic inequality, and environmental degradation.... A timely, valuable discussion of a pivotal issue. -- Library Journal, starred review A text reminiscent of those of Barry Lopez or Robert Macfarlane.... A thoughtful consideration of the imaginary lines that hold meaning for so many. -- Kirkus Reviews A richly essayistic travelogue.... Excellent. -- Steven Poole - The Guardian By exploring obvious borders and less obvious ones and looking at how they do (or don't) fit together, this illuminating book helps readers make sense of more than a few of our planet's edges. -- Randy Cepuch - Washington Independent Review of Books A lush, vivid, and powerful exploration of an idea as old as humanity, yet one which is implicated in today's most intractable global challenges. On the surface, borders appear to be about fixity. But Crawford digs far deeper. In his moving and evocative prose, we learn that borders morph, shift, and flex; they live, breathe-and sometimes choke. Crawford's border stories are richly populated, showing how borders are themselves the human performance of stories, often violent. Ghosts and phantoms haunt Crawford's terrain. From the frozen Arctic lands of Scandinavia to Africa's Sahel, Crawford travels far and wide in his pursuit of the meaning of borders. Drawing lines from deep history to today's fractured existence, The Edge of the Plain is an urgent call for comprehension of a practice that is destined to demarcate all our futures. -- David Rooney, author of About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks With The Edge of the Plain Crawford has created a beautifully observed and carefully researched collection of reportage on a diverse series of borders-of historic Palestine, in the Mediterranean, USA/Mexico, as well as other less-considered borders-those revealed by our rapidly changing climate, and the microscopic frontiers of the human body. Sometimes the view from the edge is the most illuminating one. -- Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being: A Grand Tour from the Cranium to the Calcaneum [A] wide-reaching examination of the walls, barriers and 'landscape interventions' that promote both freedom and independence, and enforce exile and humiliation.... Borders are indeed a dirty affair, but as Crawford's excellent book demonstrates, they are also fascinating. -- Joanna Grochowicz - Geographical

A richly essayistic travelogue.... Excellent. -- Steven Poole - The Guardian A lush, vivid, and powerful exploration of an idea as old as humanity, yet one which is implicated in today's most intractable global challenges. On the surface, borders appear to be about fixity. But Crawford digs far deeper. In his moving and evocative prose, we learn that borders morph, shift, and flex; they live, breathe-and sometimes choke. Crawford's border stories are richly populated, showing how borders are themselves the human performance of stories, often violent. Ghosts and phantoms haunt Crawford's terrain. From the frozen Arctic lands of Scandinavia to Africa's Sahel, Crawford travels far and wide in his pursuit of the meaning of borders. Drawing lines from deep history to today's fractured existence, The Edge of the Plain is an urgent call for comprehension of a practice that is destined to demarcate all our futures. -- David Rooney, author of About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks With The Edge of the Plain Crawford has created a beautifully observed and carefully researched collection of reportage on a diverse series of borders-of historic Palestine, in the Mediterranean, USA/Mexico, as well as other less-considered borders-those revealed by our rapidly changing climate, and the microscopic frontiers of the human body. Sometimes the view from the edge is the most illuminating one. -- Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being: A Grand Tour from the Cranium to the Calcaneum A text reminiscent of those of Barry Lopez or Robert Macfarlane.... A thoughtful consideration of the imaginary lines that hold meaning for so many. -- Kirkus Reviews

The Edge of the Plain is a lush, vivid, and powerful exploration of an idea as old as humanity, yet one which is implicated in today's most intractable global challenges. On the surface, borders appear to be about fixity. But Crawford digs far deeper. In his moving and evocative prose, we learn that borders morph, shift, and flex; they live, breathe-and sometimes choke. Crawford's border stories are richly populated, showing how borders are themselves the human performance of stories, often violent. Ghosts and phantoms haunt Crawford's terrain. From the frozen Arctic lands of Scandinavia to Africa's Sahel, Crawford travels far and wide in his pursuit of the meaning of borders. Drawing lines from deep history to today's fractured existence, The Edge of the Plain is an urgent call for comprehension of a practice that is destined to demarcate all our futures. -- David Rooney, author of About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks With The Edge of the Plain Crawford has created a beautifully-observed and carefully-researched collection of reportage on a diverse series of borders-of historic Palestine, in the Mediterranean, USA/Mexico, as well as other less-considered borders-those revealed by our rapidly changing climate, and the microscopic frontiers of the human body. Sometimes the view from the edge is the most illuminating one. -- Gavin Francis, author of Adventures in Human Being: A Grand Tour from the Cranium to the Calcaneum

Author Information

James Crawford is a historian, publisher, and broadcaster. He worked at Scotland’s National Collection of Architecture and Archaeology for over a decade and is the writer and presenter of the BBC One documentary series Scotland from the Sky. He lives in Edinburgh.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available