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  • Borderlines: A History of Europe in 29 Borders

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Lewis Baston
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Borderlines: A History of Europe in 29 Borders Paperback – 3 April 2025

English edition by Lewis Baston (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars (207)
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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

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  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Hodder Press
  4. Publication date
    3 April 2025
  5. Dimensions
    13.49 x 1.6 x 19.79 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    1399723790
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1399723794
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Product description

Review

A wonderful book, and one of the most engaging and fascinating histories of Europe I've read for years. Roaming from the fields of Ireland to the towns of western Ukraine, Lewis Baston is the perfect guide, full of curiosity and insight. It turns a familiar story into something strange, surprising and often intensely moving. -- DOMINIC SANDBROOK, author of WHO DARES WINS and co-host of THE REST IS HISTORY

Highly original and insightful...Rich in history and memorable anecdotes, this is an ambitious and affectionate attempt to describe the glorious complexity and diversity of Europe. -- PD SMITH ― GUARDIAN

'A stunningly topical and timely book. Lewis Baston is a remarkable talent, very gifted as a writer and quite extraordinarily perceptive and original in his thinking'

'Lewis Baston has incredibly strong research skills, thanks to his brilliant ability to make connections combined with an extraordinary wealth of knowledge. His writing is clear, witty and charming'

His great strength is his ability to bring everything alive through his description of the places he goes and the people he meets... Baston's writing is beautiful, and it is combined with a sense of humour and a genuine love and interest for the border regions he visits. But what makes Borderlines a true gem is his ability to connect the history of these borderlands to the people who lives there over the centuries and the people who live there now...[Baston's] unique take on human nature through the history and heritage of the borderlands ends up being deeply moving. ― Irish Independent

Free of dogma or indeed of anything even remotely stereotypical. Lewis Baston's writing is thrillingly unique, knowledgeable, perceptive and profound. This is the story of Europe told through the changing places, where one thing becomes another and two things can be true at the same time, blending psychology, travel, politics, history and geography. I'm not sure I've ever read anything quite like it. -- IAN DUNT

'A light-footed journey along the fault lines of history. Baston reveals a forgotten Europe, one that was and may have been.' -- KATJA HOYER, bestselling author of Beyond the Wall

'A stunningly topical and timely book. Lewis Baston is a remarkable talent, very gifted as a writer and quite extraordinarily perceptive and original in his thinking' -- ANTHONY SELDON

A thoughtful tour of boundaries, identities and places in-between... refreshing and important. -- RAFAEL BEHR

An original, charming and thought-provoking journey along many Europe's most interesting borders, visible, invisible and fiercely contested. -- TIMOTHY GARTON ASH, author of Homelands: A Personal History of Europe

'Lewis Baston has incredibly strong research skills, thanks to his brilliant ability to make connections combined with an extraordinary wealth of knowledge. His writing is clear, witty and charming' -- ALEX VON TUNZELMANN

'The past, that foreign country, haunts Borderlines in often surprising and unexpected ways... A vivid, deeply researched and fascinating story.' -- JOHN FREEMAN, author of Reaction

From the Back Cover

A history of twenty-nine European borderlines from a political analyst and Tim Marshall's 'borders expert'.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hodder Press
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ 3 April 2025
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ reprint
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1399723790
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1399723794
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.49 x 1.6 x 19.79 cm
  • Best Sellers Rank: 555,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • Customer reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars (207)

About the author

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Lewis Baston

Lewis Baston

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Lewis Baston is an author on history, travel and politics. His recent book 'Borderlines' is a 'refreshing and important' (Rafael Behr, Guardian) journey across the frontiers between European countries, dealing with history, contemporary politics, folklore and the war in Ukraine. He has written on British politics and the electoral landscape for thirty years.

His book writing career before now has been concerned with British history and politics. He was principal researcher to Anthony Seldon on his biography of John Major, and subsequently historical consultant to the television series accompanying Major’s memoirs. In 2000 he adapted a television series on Sleaze – a history of British political scandals – as a sole-authored book and from that he started work on the biography of Reginald Maudling. The Maudling book, Reggie, was published by Sutton in 2004 and broke new ground as a work of investigative history of a scandal-prone politician and a psychological autopsy of how a good man’s search for an easy life led to corruption and tragedy. It was one of the five books Daniel Finkelstein nominated as the best works on British conservatism: ‘a wonderful book of British history and it’s very well-written.’

Lewis has written several chapters in other works on biographical subjects such as Roy Hattersley and Jim Callaghan, the latter in Iain Dale’s The Prime Ministers (winner of the Parliamentary Book Awards in 2020), and on other historical subjects. He was born in Southampton in the early 1970s and lives in London.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
207 global ratings

Top review from Germany

  • C.A.IV wien
    5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible
    Reviewed in Germany on 3 May 2025
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    Incredible insights...great!
    Helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Ana Maria Freire Gonçalves Dente
    4.0 out of 5 stars Muito bom para quem gosta de viagens por paises diferentes e conhecer suas fronteiras....
    Reviewed in Brazil on 6 July 2025
    Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
    Livro bem interessante!
    Report
  • Cliente Kindle
    3.0 out of 5 stars Typical British look on Europe
    Reviewed in Italy on 27 February 2026
    Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
    There's civilization, embodied by German-speaking Jewish intellectuals - and then there's the barbaric hordes, incarnated by the inevitabile Russian Communists. (Ukrainians, themselves, are innocent victims - they have always been, right?)
    The potentially intriguing trip aveliss Europe's quirky and lon-cintentious borders end in Czernowitz (or whatever they call It, the name Is and remains Slavic). The urgency of moralizing about the tragic fratricidal war between revanchist, incurably illiberal Russia and nationalist, West-leaning Ukraine forced this choice.
    But a not less apt one would have been Kosovo, a country created in violation of the very same sacro-saint nature of existing borders invoked elsewhere. And this omission is, well, a silent confession.
    Report
  • Stephen Oliver
    5.0 out of 5 stars Very well written.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 November 2025
    Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
    Detailed, informative and cleverly written, this big book had me enthralled. I learned a lot from it.
    Report
  • Derlemke
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fun and tragic History
    Reviewed in the United States on 3 November 2025
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Great book
    Report
  • Dawn G
    4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting book
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 November 2025
    Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase
    Having lived and worked in Germany, witnessed the Berlin Wall coming down, and benefited from the relaxation of border regulations across Western Europe, I find the history very interesting
    Report
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