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A review by amyellen18
Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of Flags by Tim Marshall
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
4.0
I bought this book because I've seen so many of his books around and have always been interested in them, but have never picked one up. This one specifically caught my eye because of the drama of the title and the allusion to war, identity and nationalism themes, which interest me.
The book was organised very well, grouping certain flags and explaining the connections between them and their individual stories, often reading like a novel. I learnt lots, including about my own flag, the Union Jack. I was especially interested in the chapters 'Flags of Fear' and 'Flags of Freedom'.
Certain national flags were spoken about at length (especially those of the USA and UK) and others seemed to be oddly skipped over. It would probably be unreasonable to expect a history of every single nation state flag, given the confines of the length of the book, but I would be interested to know why some areas seemed to be largely ignored. Maybe this is just me wanting more, however.
This book did not only contain the stories of nation state flags - along with the aformentioned 'Flags of Fear' chapter which contained information on the flags of terrorist groups etc, the final chapter of 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' discussed flags such as the rainbow pride flag, the white flag and the chequered flag, all of which were very interesting to read about and surprised me when I first picked up the book. The book therefore gave a wide-reaching view on the importance of flags to not just to national identity, but other aspects of identity and as a means of communication.
The tone of the book was very informative but slightly informal in places, which worked very well. I laughed at some of the humorous lines, such as"This is only marginally better than the fate which befell the Italian revolutionary Garibaldi, who went on to become a biscuit" and many others.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in flags, nationalism, humanity and identity. There is a hopeful tone throughout the book, discussing a coming together of both local and (sometimes) national communities as well as nations themselves to form multinational organisations such as the UN, Red Cross/Crescent/Crystal and NATO.
Note: not a criticism of the book, as it was published before the name was changed, but just a note that Eswatini is mentioned breifly and called Swaziland.
The book was organised very well, grouping certain flags and explaining the connections between them and their individual stories, often reading like a novel. I learnt lots, including about my own flag, the Union Jack. I was especially interested in the chapters 'Flags of Fear' and 'Flags of Freedom'.
Certain national flags were spoken about at length (especially those of the USA and UK) and others seemed to be oddly skipped over. It would probably be unreasonable to expect a history of every single nation state flag, given the confines of the length of the book, but I would be interested to know why some areas seemed to be largely ignored. Maybe this is just me wanting more, however.
This book did not only contain the stories of nation state flags - along with the aformentioned 'Flags of Fear' chapter which contained information on the flags of terrorist groups etc, the final chapter of 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' discussed flags such as the rainbow pride flag, the white flag and the chequered flag, all of which were very interesting to read about and surprised me when I first picked up the book. The book therefore gave a wide-reaching view on the importance of flags to not just to national identity, but other aspects of identity and as a means of communication.
The tone of the book was very informative but slightly informal in places, which worked very well. I laughed at some of the humorous lines, such as
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in flags, nationalism, humanity and identity. There is a hopeful tone throughout the book, discussing a coming together of both local and (sometimes) national communities as well as nations themselves to form multinational organisations such as the UN, Red Cross/Crescent/Crystal and NATO.
Note: not a criticism of the book, as it was published before the name was changed, but just a note that Eswatini is mentioned breifly and called Swaziland.