Brexit was 10,000 years in the making, Stanford historian says in new book
What Britain’s geography means to the British people is key to understanding why they voted to leave the European Union, Stanford classics Professor Ian Morris asserts.
That reason is geography.
More precisely, what Britain’s geography means to residents of the island nation – officially known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – is the key to understanding why, in 2016, they made the decision they did, and what that choice augurs for their future, Morris writes in his new book, Geography Is Destiny (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2022).
“Brexit was just the latest round in an ancient argument about what Britain’s geography means,” he asserts. How that meaning has changed is what the book is about.
Morris, who holds the Jean and Rebecca Willard Endowed Professorship in Classics, argues that the meaning of a region’s geography depends on two things: technology, especially the kinds connected with travel and communication, and organization, particularly the kinds that allow technology to be effectively deployed. His new book is divided into three parts, each represented by a map depicting how these forces have shaped Britain’s relationship with Europe and the world.