Crawford, James. (2022). The edge of the plain: How borders make and break our world. Edinburgh, UK: Canongate.
Crawford blends history, travel and reportage to take readers on a wide-ranging journey through the history of borders and an examination of their role in shaping our world today. This seems a useful discussion for courses considering intercultural dialogue as a topic, given that such dialogue assumes the existence of various sorts of borders.
There’ve been all of these issues around borders, and I wanted to understand where they came from…Every border, in a sense, is a story, and it’s a story that we tell our selves
James Crawford (from CNN interview)
The Edge of the Plain explores how borders have grown and evolved to take control of our landscapes, our memories, our identities and our destinies. As nationalism, climate change, globalisation, technology and mass migration all collide with ever-hardening borders, something has to give. And Crawford asks, is it time to let go of the lines that divide us?
There is an interview of the author by Christiane Amanpour on CNN which also might be useful as a course resource.
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 