How borders shaped world history – with Jonn Elledge

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

News, Society & Culture, Politics, Government

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We live in a world of borders – and often take them for granted. But they’ve shaped the world in myriad ways over the centuries. Our politicians go to extreme lengths to secure them and in some cases build giant walls to protect them. So what can we learn from examining their history? Andrew Harrison is joined by Jonn Elledge, author of A History of the World in 47 Borders: The Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps, as we talk about the weird and wonderful history of the lines on our maps. • “Open borders aren’t inherently progressive, Genghis Khan was in favour of them!” – Jonn Elledge • “When you look back through history, You have empires, you have cities but there aren’t many borders.” – Jonn Elledge • “Borders in Europe only really started settling down in the 17th and 18th centuries.” – Jonn Elledge We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit. Support us on Patreon. Buy Jonn Elledge’s book A History of the World in 47 Borders: The Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund The Bunker by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio editor: Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Instagram | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	My name is Stan. I'm at. Nice to meet you. So you took up photography where? I've always loved
0:05.5	photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.
0:11.8	Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retry. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?
0:13.0	I loved going to college.
0:14.0	It's good you can retrain and do something.
0:16.0	Yeah, yeah.
0:17.0	Let's talk about working, learning, saving and making the most of living longer.
0:22.0	Phoenix Group is the UK's largest long-term savings and retirement business.
0:28.0	Search Phoenix Group living longer.
0:30.0	Pets brings so much joy.
0:32.0	From those happy greetings at the door to the warm cuddles on the sofa.
0:37.0	So give a little love back with Dental Life from Purina, a range of delicious chues made for dogs and tasty snacks for cats that help clean and support your pets, teeth and gums, essential for their overall well-being and a happy, healthy life. They give you plenty of smiles so look
0:55.5	after theirs with dental life. Pick up your mornings. I'm Andrew Harrison. This time, we live in a world of borders. We argue over them, we obsess over them. We spend millions build giant walls and warp our politics out of shape in order to secure them.
1:25.2	And some of us are willing to kill large numbers of people in order to move them or just to keep
1:29.0	them where they are.
1:30.0	They're so deeply rooted in our way of life that we never question their legitimacy
1:34.4	or imagine that a perimeter where one state abuts directly against another
1:38.6	might not be a natural feature of the world at all, but a human creation as abstract and notional as money, love or taxes.
1:46.2	John Adage, friend of the podcast and regular on paper cuts and oh God what now, knows this and he is fascinated by
1:51.5	borders. He's written a history of the world in 47 borders, the stories behind the lines on our maps.
1:57.0	It's an exceptionally entertaining book which does exactly what it says on the tin and offers the bonus factor of being stuffed with entertaining did you
2:04.6	nose to amaze your pals. Hello John it's been hours and hours since you're in the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Podmasters, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Podmasters and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.