Citizens of Nowhere
Oct. 7th, 2025 07:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qatsiBook Review: Borderlines A History of Europe in 29 Borders, by Lewis Baston
Baston begins in a heavily qualified manner, observing that there have been no international borders on the British mainland for hundreds of years, and that by implication we have no day-to-day experience of them, with international travel being a relatively exceptional event. Of course, he then goes on in the first chapter proper to discuss the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the first of many cases where British (and presumably, for the most part, English) politicians and civil servants drew straight lines across maps to "solve" a problem, neglecting the local difficulties of farms or roads wiggling their way from one side to the other and back again. This is one of the borders in the book (the other is the border between France and Germany) that has had its fair share of problems, but is now calm.
More light-hearted is the surreal situation of Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog, where medieval land deals have left a series of enclaves and exclaves. Here some properties even straddle an international border. Baston discusses things such as shopping regulations, shared utilities and culture, and quirks such as divergent Covid regulations during the pandemic.
More of the book is devoted to borders in central and eastern Europe, and here there's often a chill in the air. With the three Baltic states in the Schengen area, the borders between them are soft, but in each the border with Russia is hard. The borders of many countries were moved after the First World War, and again after the Second World War. Baston perhaps looks through rose-tinted spectacles at the Austro-Hungarian empire, arguing that nationality was a secondary concern in such a melting pot, but maybe the Hapsburgs understood the balancing act better than some of their successors. For many years Poland had concerns that post-war Germany would reinstate claims on its eastern border; and the concept of a Greater Hungary still lingers in some political circles.
Baston sees borders as places of arbitrage, legitimate or otherwise, and repeatedly makes argument that the people in these zones have less affinity to a nation state than those located more centrally within it. I think that's an over-generalisation. Sometimes the distant national capital is irrelevant, and local relations across the border carry sway; but sometimes it's definitely a case of "us" on this side of the border and "them" on the other.
Baston begins in a heavily qualified manner, observing that there have been no international borders on the British mainland for hundreds of years, and that by implication we have no day-to-day experience of them, with international travel being a relatively exceptional event. Of course, he then goes on in the first chapter proper to discuss the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the first of many cases where British (and presumably, for the most part, English) politicians and civil servants drew straight lines across maps to "solve" a problem, neglecting the local difficulties of farms or roads wiggling their way from one side to the other and back again. This is one of the borders in the book (the other is the border between France and Germany) that has had its fair share of problems, but is now calm.
More light-hearted is the surreal situation of Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog, where medieval land deals have left a series of enclaves and exclaves. Here some properties even straddle an international border. Baston discusses things such as shopping regulations, shared utilities and culture, and quirks such as divergent Covid regulations during the pandemic.
More of the book is devoted to borders in central and eastern Europe, and here there's often a chill in the air. With the three Baltic states in the Schengen area, the borders between them are soft, but in each the border with Russia is hard. The borders of many countries were moved after the First World War, and again after the Second World War. Baston perhaps looks through rose-tinted spectacles at the Austro-Hungarian empire, arguing that nationality was a secondary concern in such a melting pot, but maybe the Hapsburgs understood the balancing act better than some of their successors. For many years Poland had concerns that post-war Germany would reinstate claims on its eastern border; and the concept of a Greater Hungary still lingers in some political circles.
Baston sees borders as places of arbitrage, legitimate or otherwise, and repeatedly makes argument that the people in these zones have less affinity to a nation state than those located more centrally within it. I think that's an over-generalisation. Sometimes the distant national capital is irrelevant, and local relations across the border carry sway; but sometimes it's definitely a case of "us" on this side of the border and "them" on the other.
