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An Atlas of Extinct Countries - The Remarkable (and Occasionally Ridiculous) Stories of 48 Nations That Fell off the Map (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R307
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An Atlas of Extinct Countries - The Remarkable (and Occasionally Ridiculous) Stories of 48 Nations That Fell off the Map (Hardcover)
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Loot Price R307
Discovery Miles 3 070
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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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 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
fails to do that. And that is mainly because most of these dead
nations (and a lot of the ones that are still alive) are so weird
or borderline nonsensical that it's impossible to skip the
embarrassing stuff. The life stories of the sadly deceased involve
a catalogue of chancers, racists, racist chancers, conmen, madmen,
people trying to get out of paying tax, mistakes, lies, stupid
schemes and General Idiocy. Because of this - and because treating
nation states with too much respect is the entire problem with
pretty much everything - these accounts are not fussed about adding
to all the earnest flag saluting in the world, however nice some of
the flags are.
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