A book filled with intelligent trivia that’s tainted by the author’s commentary. Even for a geo-politics newbie like me, Marshall’s biases were impossible to ignore. Perhaps if you avoid the ‘Flags of Terror’ chapter and the author’s relentless obeisance to the United States, the book would make for a spectacular read. It’s a treasure trove of the histories of nation’s flags written in a highly capable journalist’s immaculate way of stitching the world together. Unfortunately, those biases do exist, and the Flags of Terror chapter is a central part of the book, both of which fell uncomfortably on my boundaries of bearability.
I’ve had my fair share of obsession with flags of the world, and questions like “Why are the Mexican and Italian flags so similar” have certainly entertained me. So this book was fantastic – at the least, it informed me on which questions were worth pondering more on and which of them were truly inconsequential (The Mexican-Italian coincidence, for instance.) The optimistic chapter on Central and South American flags (Flags of Freedom) and the chapter that quickly and efficiently analyzed the African flags were some of the high points of the read.
If the narration hadn’t so obviously been affected by Marshall’s political views, this book would have been an instant recommendation from me. As it stands, I’ll add the disclaimer and assert that it’s still worth a read. However, I’d recommend one to read Prisoners of Geography first, Marshall’s more recent release which, while still being opinionated, is more reasonably so.
– Swathi Chandrasekaran
Perplexed Potatoes 