Borderlines: A jaunty trip through European borderlands

A little bit of background📃

I spotted Borderlines in an eclectic, indie bookshop in Melbourne that I discovered on a work trip. The Book Grocer has a store presence but seems to do most of its trade online. I bought Borderlines at the same time as the brilliant, A bookshop of one's own. Borderlines is part travelogue, part history, and part exploration of the oddities of border towns in Europe. I was on board from the get go!

Borderlines: A history of Europe in 29 borders | Published June 2024 | Read September 2026

The author✏️

Lewis Baston (born 1971) is a British political historian and author who has written on British politics and the electoral landscape for some thirty years. He was principal researcher to Anthony Seldon on his biography of former Prime Minister John Major, and subsequently historical consultant to the BBC television series accompanying Major’s memoirs. Baston was Research Director for the Electoral Reform Society from 2003 to 2010 and Research Fellow at Democratic Audit from 2011 to 2015.

The subject matterℹ️

Borderlines is a genre-bending-and-blending journey through, as it says on the tin, twenty-nine European borders. Baston takes the reader along with him as he recounts his travels to the borderlands, providing a unique insight into the fascinating and sometimes bizarre histories and current realities of border towns and regions.

There are eighteen chapters in the book, divided into four parts - West, North, Centre and East. Within each chapter there is a study of the particularities of the places where two, and sometimes three, nations converge. Baston explores how the modern borders came to be, how border towns have been claimed and reclaimed by multiple countries over time, and what is like to live in contested and in-between spaces while trying to heal from the scars of old wounds.

My thoughts on the book💭

Borderlines is a tough one to review as I so wanted to love it and I almost got there. I loved the quirky, niche approach to Baston's border journey. He serves up some fascinating insights into the absurdities of life in towns that straddle borders and have been batted back and forth between countries over time, creating an odd mix of histories, cultures, and languages. There is a certain poignancy to Baston's exploration of the erasure of the original and changing identities of the border lands as the baton was handed to someone else. Baston's heartfelt approach to his experiences is one of the book's strengths.

I just felt that the book could work have worked so much better if Baston had found his swim lane and stuck to it. The parts that I found most interesting were his travels. I felt most connected to the book when Baston was describing his experiences and the odd ways that border towns function. I would have preferred he stuck to that, found more examples of border town life, and provided a bit of history of how and why they came to be. There were lots of hugely fascinating bits to the book juxtaposed with "pure history" that felt a bit bland by contrast. These historical accounts felt out of place and not entirely related to the border focus of the book.

The issue of Baston and his swim lane gives rise to a fundamental flaw with book and others of its type. Ironically for a book about the complexities of borders, Baston's book sits slightly uncomfortably in a liminal space between travelogue and historical text without fully owning either. The result is still a fascinating read, but it creates an odd mix of narratives that doesn't quite serve up what it promises. I don't think the book is "a history of Europe". It is instead a small and intimate exploration of the places Baston chooses to focus on to which he feels particularly connected. I loved being taken on the journey with him as his connections felt beautifully nerdy and authentic, despite the book not doing what it purports to do.

The book is also somewhat lopsided in Baston's decisions around inclusion and omission and in the nations he chooses to criticise. His criticisms are mostly justified, they're just not balanced out by the same and well-deserved censure aimed at others. Baston also makes his stance clear, but his views (the European Union and "freedom" are good, the other "side" is bad) do little to provide deep insight into why borders are necessary nor does Baston's approach offer alternative perspectives. This has the effect of making his analysis sound somewhat simplistic and idealistic. That's partly why I think he should have stuck to the travelogue vibe and kept it more personal.

I am not sure if Baston is Jewish, but he certainly makes a conscious decision to bring Jewish history and suffering to the foreground. There is much of that suffering to foreground, for sure, but again, it made the book feel lopsided. I also took issue with his continual reference to Judaism as a nation. I understand Judaism to be an ethno-religious identity, but to speak of Jews and Poles, for example, as a separate thing rankled me a bit. I acknowledge that suffering is not a competition, but it is also universal and much wider than the Jewish experience. A little more balance in that respect would have gone a long way to connecting me with the book.

Oh, and as other reviewers have noted, the book would have benefitted from the inclusion of maps. I found myself with Google Maps on the ready as I made my way through the book, to orient myself to the places Baston was describing.

What I did love was Baston's self-deprecating style and his British wit. Here are some examples of the gems to be found:

(Referencing Konrad Henlein, a gymnastics teacher and head of the fascist movement in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s) I imagine anyone who writes a book, and a fair proportion of readers, can recall something from their childhood that makes the idea of a PE teacher leading a fascist movement seem appropriate.

As we have seen, there are few geopolitical situations that cannot be worsened by an Englishman brandishing a map and a pen. Similarly, The numbers and geography in Rothermere's proposal were wayward, but that has never greatly troubled an Englishman drawing lines across maps of other people's countries.

More of this, please!

My key learnings🪴

I learnt so much about the shifting borders of Europe and how history has redrawn maps, creating an enormous impact on the people who live in the borderlands. I learnt about life and the realities of border town existence and the fight to preserve histories, cultures, languages, architecture and monuments. The quirky town of Baarle, broken into thirty fragments by the Netherland-Belgium border, is one example of the idiosyncrasies of the arbitrary lines that Baston describes.

As per the two quotes above, Borderlines confirmed what I knew about the inhumane ways slabs of land are divided up by an "Englishman brandishing a map and a pen", instantly changing the lives of the people who inhabit the map. The way lands and border towns have been handed around in power grabs, almost instantly changing the identity of the town, made me feel incredibly sad.

In sum📝

I love the quirky nature of Borderlines. It's a flawed book for sure, but also a valuable piece of writing. I learnt so much from Baston's unique take on history, nation-building, and border realities. My four-star rating reflects the fascinating concept for the book, the peppering of Baston's dry British and understated wit, and my journey through previously unknown (and rather random) places in Baston's company. I just wish he'd fully committed to one focus for the book so that it could stand alone, and stand out, as a clever take on border history.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐