Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of Flags

From the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Prisoners of Geography

When you see your nation's flag fluttering in the breeze, what do you feel?; For thousands of years flags have represented our hopes and dreams. We wave them. Burn them. March under their colours. And still, in the 21st century, we die for them.

Flags fly at the UN, on the Arab street, from front porches in Texas. They represent the politics of high power as well as the politics of the mob. From the renewed sense of nationalism in China, to troubled identities in Europe and the USA, to the terrifying rise of Islamic State, the world is a confusing place right now and we need to understand the symbols, old and new, that people are rallying round.

In nine chapters (covering the USA, UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, international flags and flags of terror), Tim Marshall draws on more than twenty-five years of global reporting experience to reveal the histories, the power and the politics of the symbols that unite us - and divide us.

Tim Marshall can summarise the world in a nutshell. His runaway bestseller Prisoners of Geography effortlessly rewrote our understanding of nationhood, and now Divided turns to the sometimes invisible fences and walls that separate culture and belief. There is hope here too, however: for every division a bridge, and in every enemy a future friend. Concise and brilliantly perceptive.