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zakbithell 's review for:

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall
1.75
informative fast-paced

Marshall's writing comes across as environmentally deterministic, which is problematic given the discipline's close history to colonialism. Combined with what feels like to me a strong western lens and bias, this book feels less popular science and more like writing a book around a catchy title.

Does Marshall do everything badly? Of course not, he does provide an apt introduction of geopolitics for those less aware, although you would expect a book labelled around geography to be more considerate of a global perspective. Such a view certainly isn't modern, emphasised by Said's Orientalism written all the way back in the 70s.

I would not recommend this book, although I can appreciate it's value as a gateway to exploring geopolitics, despite its flaws.