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  • Prisoners of Geography

  • Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World
  • Written by: Tim Marshall
  • Narrated by: Scott Brick
  • Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (111 ratings)

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Prisoners of Geography

Written by: Tim Marshall
Narrated by: Scott Brick
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Publisher's Summary

Maps have a mysterious hold over us. Whether ancient, crumbling parchments or generated by Google, maps tell us things we want to know, not only about our current location or where we are going but about the world in general. And yet, when it comes to geo-politics, much of what we are told is generated by analysts and other experts who have neglected to refer to a map of the place in question.

All leaders of nations are constrained by geography. In this audiobook, now updated to include 2016 geopolitical developments, journalist Tim Marshall examines Russia, China, the US, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Japan, Korea, and Greenland and the Arctic - their weather, seas, mountains, rivers, deserts, and borders - to provide a context often missing from our political reportage: how the physical characteristics of these countries affect their strengths and vulnerabilities and the decisions made by their leaders.

Marshall explains the complex geo-political strategies that shape the globe. Why is Putin so obsessed with Crimea? Why was the US destined to become a global superpower? Why does China's power base continue to expand? Why is Tibet destined to lose its autonomy? Why will Europe never be united? The answers are geographical.

©2015 Tim Marshall (P)2016 Audiobooks.com Publishing

What the critics say

"In an ever more complex, chaotic, and interlinked world, Prisoners of Geography is a concise and useful primer on geopolitics." ( Newsweek)

What listeners say about Prisoners of Geography

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    2 out of 5 stars

Political proselytizing in the guise of geography

this is just an author finding a way to rant about how great the US is and how the rest of the world is weak and powerless. Geography has 5% to do with this book, and it's 10% history. most of it is baseless commentary on current politics with lazy tropes such as North Korea bad, China bad, poor Asia and Latin America will never solve their strife, USA big strong and good. Some laugh out loud moments ensue when he belittles countries, for example saying India only cares about hating Pakistan and cricket. for all that, i learned some things like the importance of the Strait of Malaka. but I get the sense Marshall wanted to write a smug book about global politics and how he is so smartly able to identify the problems, but his editors made him take a novel approach by putting geography in the title. the geography is so forced, and the author offers no solutions, so it really is just him ranting about how dumb non American countries are. BRIC will always fail, he says in a throwaway statement with no backing, the EU will never work, the rest of the world NEEDS America because without them they'll fall apart, all with the undertones of Big Oil Good, even getting super excited about how the melting Arctic means more resources to mine, yay! the topic has such potential but he waves it all away, taking only macro looks at, for example, the entirety of South and Central America in one chapter despite their massive geographical differences. no nuance, heavy on political proselytizing, and lazy analysis. very disappointing.

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4 people found this helpful

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Geopolitics at it's best

A great listen and very eye opening. Mr.Marshal's predictions in this book are playing out as we speak. A well educated writing and a very good narration as well.
Maps would be nice as a pdf download but following along with google maps works.

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A must to understand past and present times

Easy comprehensive but rich in content. Recommended to everyo who would like to understand current political and geographical matters

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Highly recommended!

Very well written. Brings to light many interesting facts and observations.
Other reviews mention that there is no pdf accompanying the audiobook. Just use Google Earth to follow along. Viewing the world as a globe rather than 2D will emphasize many of the points made in the book (ie. Africa is much bigger than shown on 2D maps).

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Excellent.

A great review of why different paoples and states are the way they are and behave to way they do.

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good informative and accurate

good informative and accurate, but would have been nice to have maps attached to like in a PDF version or something

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Awesome book

I really enjoyed this book to the fullest. Really interesting to see how geography has been so influential in shaping countries. It also provides you with a better understanding about foreign policies.

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