Worth Dying For: THE POWER AND POLITICS OF FLAGS

Worth Dying For: THE POWER AND POLITICS OF FLAGS

By: Tim Marshall

ISBN: 9781783962815
eBook ISBN: 9781783962822
Cover: Hardback
Published: September 22, 2016
Size: 234x156mm
Page Count: 272 pages

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OUT NOW – The perfect companion to Tim Marshall’s geopolitical explainers! Test your geography IQ with Prisoners of Geography: The Quiz BookIncludes over 300 questions, puzzles and word games based on world affairs, designed to challenge, entertain and inform.

When you see your nation’s flag fluttering in the breeze, what do you feel?

For thousands of years flags have represented our hopes and dreams. We wave them. Burn them. March under their colours. And still, in the 21st century, we die for them. Flags fly at the UN, on the Arab street, from front porches in Texas. They represent the politics of high power as well as the politics of the mob.

From the renewed sense of nationalism in China, to troubled identities in Europe and the USA, to the terrifying rise of Islamic State, the world is a confusing place right now and we need to understand the symbols, old and new, that people are rallying round.

In nine chapters (covering the USA, UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, international flags and flags of terror), Tim Marshall draws on more than twenty-five years of global reporting experience to reveal the histories, the power and the politics of the symbols that unite us – and divide us.

  • Full of sharp analysis and a very entertaining read


    - Andrew Neil
  • A fascinating tour of the world’s ensigns, their histories and meanings … a sobering lesson in just how silly we human beings can be


    - Daily Mail
  • Timely … explores how the threads of history and legend are woven into the fabric of a country’s banner


    - TLS
  • Insightful and entertaining … a truly fascinating book that feels all the more considered and urgent in today’s world of Brexit, Trump, China and ISIS


    - Dan Lewis, Wanderlust magazine
  • This might be the comprehensive flag volume we’ve all been waiting for – a slick yet detailed and well-researched journey through some of the world’s most infamous and interesting flags … Marshall guides us through this myriad of stories admirably


    - Geographical magazine