Memory holes and popular culture; middle-brow geography and what is ignored

When we try to educate ourselves about The World, we can easily be misled by popular accounts, either because the author is trying to pull a fast one, or just because well things get ‘forgotten. I don’t know what the solution is, besides reading loads and remembering most of it? And who has the time?

So, on page six of the so-far-enjoyable 2015 book by Tim Marshall, Prisoners of Geography Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need To Know About Global Politics, there’s this.

Spot what’s missing?

If not have a read of this from the “what else you could read by this author section at the back of a second book (1).

The Russians haven’t forgotten that attack in 1918-20 but unless you already knew about it, you won’t learn anything from Marshall’s book (2).

This is NOT to excuse, validate or whatever what Putin is doing now. It’s just to say, well, when we try to educate ourselves about The World…

Footnotes

(1) I definitely did not buy these two books (for 25p a piece) on Friday.Nor any others. Nosiree.

(2) This is also not to say Marshall is a dupe of Western Powers or whatever, or deliberately left the 1918-20 stuff out of his list. It is entirely plausible that it was just an oversight. But it’s those kinds of oversights which always seems to trend in one direction, to make Us into the Good Guys, or at worst the Okay Guys…