The world changes so quickly. [An Atlas of Extinct Countries by Gideon Defoe]

Prisoners of Geography meets Bill Bryson: a funny, fascinating, beautifully illustrated—and timely—history of countries that, for myriad and often ludicrous reasons, no longer exist.

“Countries are just daft stories we tell each other. They’re all equally implausible once you get up close.”

Countries die. Sometimes it’s murder, sometimes it’s by accident, and sometimes it’s because they were so ludicrous they didn’t deserve to exist in the first place. Occasionally they explode violently. A few slip away almost unnoticed. Often the cause of death is either “got too greedy” or “Napoleon turned up.” Now and then they just hold a referendum and vote themselves out of existence.

This is an atlas of 48 nations that fell off the map. The polite way of writing an obituary is: dwell on the good bits, gloss over the embarrassing stuff. This book refuses to do so, because these dead nations are so full of schemers, racists, and con men that it’s impossible to skip the embarrassing stuff.

Because of this – and because treating nation-states with too much reverence is the entire problem with pretty much everything – these accounts are not concerned with adding to the earnest flag saluting in the world, however nice some of the flags might be.

Let me, counter to usual but not entirely unprecedented, start off with my rating. 5 stars. Now, why did I start with the rating? To convey how much I enjoyed the book, sure. Mostly because I'm a bit shocked that others don't feel as overwhelming happy with their read as I did.

I'm sure I've mentioned it elsewhere, but sometime in October 2020, as a very eventful year was approaching it's close, I guess around the highest points in the drama of the U.S. election, I discovered GeoGuessr thanks to a TikTok. More than anything, that geography game has reignited my passion for trivia. Random language factoids, local ethnic demographic stats, and, in the interest of context, history. But add to any recapping of history a relatable sense of humor and I'm sold. 

Gideon Defoe's An Atlas of Extinct Countries recounts some of the absurdities of nation-building and state deaths, reminding the reader that geopolitics is a fickle game and always in flux. I can't attest as to why others didn't like it, but I found this a fine read. So again, 5 stars. Read it and decide how you like it!

An Atlas of Extinct Countries (ISBN: 9781609456801) was published June 2021.