''Divided: Why We're Living in an Age of Walls'' is a book on

border barrier A border barrier, border fence or border wall is a separation barrier that runs along or near an international border. Such barriers are typically constructed for border control purposes such as curbing illegal immigration, human trafficking, a ...

s by the British author and journalist Tim Marshall. It was published by Elliott & Thompson in 2018.

Synopsis

Marshall notes that the majority of

s built since the end of the Second World War were not

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

structures like the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

, but constructed in the 21st century. Chapters of the book are on barriers such as the

Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' long wall") is a series of fortifications in China. They were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against vario ...

, the

Moroccan Western Sahara Wall The Moroccan Western Sahara Wall or the Berm, also called the Moroccan sand wall (), is an approximately berm running south to north through Western Sahara and the southwestern portion of Morocco. It separates the Moroccan-controlled areas ...

, the wall on the

Bangladesh–India border The Bangladesh–India border, known locally as the Radcliffe line, is an international boundary, international border running between the republics of Bangladesh and India. Six Divisions of Bangladesh, Bangladeshi divisions and five States and ...

, the

Israeli West Bank barrier The West Bank barrier, West Bank wall or the West Bank separation barrier, is a separation barrier built by Israel along the Green Line (Israel), Green Line and inside parts of the West Bank. Israel describes the wall as a necessary securi ...

and the Mexico–United States barrier. Marshall writes that the 2015 European migrant crisis resulted in a rise in far-right parties, and believes that nation states should be protected while a "21st-century Marshall Plan" redistributes wealth to the Global South.

Reception

Samanth Subramanian of the ''Financial Times'' was disappointed that the book appeared to be sourced from journals and newspapers rather than Marshall's experiences as an international journalist. He also disliked how Marshall deemed wall-building to be "Appeal to nature, human nature" and did not deal with the paradox of humanity's most interconnected era also being the one with the most border barriers. Writing in Geographical (magazine), ''Geographical'', the official magazine of the Royal Geographical Society, Laura Cole also found Marshall to be "on the fence" about why there was an increase in wall-building in the 21st century. She praised sections on internal dividers, such as Gated community, gated communities in the United States and South Africa, and China's online Great Firewall. In ''The Times Literary Supplement'', Marcello Di Cintio praised Marshall's level of research on topics such as black disadvantage in the United States. Huston Gilmore of the ''Daily Express'' gave the book four stars out of five. He criticised the lack of development of Marshall's ideas and found the conclusion to be rushed. A review by Michael McCosh in The Press and Journal (Scotland), ''The Press and Journal'' called the book "a very knowledgeable, timely book and a good primer on current problems in a longer-term context", but deemed it to need "more of a flourish" due to the serious topics.

References

{{reflist 2018 non-fiction books Books about nationalism