THE REST IS HISTORY CLUB BOOK OF THE MONTH 'One of the most engaging and fascinating
histories of Europe I've read for years.' DOMINIC SANDBROOK 'Highly original and insightful'
PD SMITH GUARDIAN 'Thrillingly unique knowledgeable perceptive and profound' IAN DUNT
The history of Europe told through twenty-nine key borders that define the past present and
future of our continent Europe's internal borders have rarely been 'natural' they have more
often been created by accident or force. In Borderlines political historian Lewis Baston
journeys along twenty-nine key borders from west to east Europe examining how the map of our
continent has been redrawn over the last century with varying degrees of success. The
fingerprints of Napoleon Alexander I Castlereagh Napoleon III and Bismarck are all there
but today's map of Europe is mostly the work of the Allies in 1919 and Stalin in 1945. To
journey to the centre of the story of Europe Baston takes us to its edges bringing to life
the fascinating and often bizarre histories of these border zones. We visit Baarle the town
broken into thirty fragments by the Netherland-Belgium border and stop in Ostritz the eastern
German town where Nazis held a rock festival. We meander the back lanes of rural Ireland and
soak up the atmosphere in the coffee houses of the Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi. Through these
borderlands Baston explores how places and people heal from the scars left by a Europe of
ethnic cleansing and barbed wire fences and he searches for a better European future - finding
it in unexpected places. 'An eye-opening read that combines Baston's travels along Europe's
fault lines with incredible insights on how they got there in the first place.' KATJA HOYER
'Beautiful. A true gem... [his] unique take on human nature through the history and heritage of
the borderlands ends up being deeply moving.' - IRISH INDEPENDENT ' Extraordinarily
perceptive and original' ANTHONY SELDON 'Refreshing and important' RAFAEL BEHR
