A Flag Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of National Symbols
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Overview
“An entertaining whistle-stop tour of world flags,” examining their influence through analysis of current events and world history (Library Journal).
For thousands of years flags have stood for our identities and ideals. We wave them, burn them, and march under their colors. And still, in the twenty-first century, we die for them. Flags fly at the UN, on Arab streets, from front porches in Texas. They represent the politics of high power as well as the passions of the mob.
In A Flag Worth Dying For, Tim Marshall, author of the New York Times bestseller Prisoners of Geography, returns to the arena of global affairs, combining keen analysis of current events with world history to reveal the power and politics of the symbols, old and new, that both unite us and divide us.
In nine chapters covering America, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, international banners, and flags of terror, Marshall offers insights into the flags of more than eighty-five countries, among them key global superpowers as well as dozens of smaller nations, and shows how their hidden histories figure in the diplomatic relations and political movements of today’s urgent headlines.
“In this brisk, entertaining read, Marshall successfully answers a puzzling question: how can a simple piece of cloth come to mean so much? Marshall presents an informative survey of these highly visible symbols of national or international pride.” —Publishers Weekly
“[Marshall] writes with the cool drollery that characterized the work of Christopher Hitchens or Simon Winchester. He tackles a topic that many people take seriously without taking himself seriously, and the result is a book that explains where many of the flags that capture the world’s imagination come from and why.” —USA Today
“Country by country the author considers the great diversity of the world’s flags, serving up with offhand affection a lively text full of interesting anecdotes and telling details. A treasure vault for vexillologists, full of meaning beyond the hue and thread of the world’s banners.” —Kirkus Reviews
For thousands of years flags have stood for our identities and ideals. We wave them, burn them, and march under their colors. And still, in the twenty-first century, we die for them. Flags fly at the UN, on Arab streets, from front porches in Texas. They represent the politics of high power as well as the passions of the mob.
In A Flag Worth Dying For, Tim Marshall, author of the New York Times bestseller Prisoners of Geography, returns to the arena of global affairs, combining keen analysis of current events with world history to reveal the power and politics of the symbols, old and new, that both unite us and divide us.
In nine chapters covering America, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Latin America, international banners, and flags of terror, Marshall offers insights into the flags of more than eighty-five countries, among them key global superpowers as well as dozens of smaller nations, and shows how their hidden histories figure in the diplomatic relations and political movements of today’s urgent headlines.
“In this brisk, entertaining read, Marshall successfully answers a puzzling question: how can a simple piece of cloth come to mean so much? Marshall presents an informative survey of these highly visible symbols of national or international pride.” —Publishers Weekly
“[Marshall] writes with the cool drollery that characterized the work of Christopher Hitchens or Simon Winchester. He tackles a topic that many people take seriously without taking himself seriously, and the result is a book that explains where many of the flags that capture the world’s imagination come from and why.” —USA Today
“Country by country the author considers the great diversity of the world’s flags, serving up with offhand affection a lively text full of interesting anecdotes and telling details. A treasure vault for vexillologists, full of meaning beyond the hue and thread of the world’s banners.” —Kirkus Reviews
- Title: A Flag Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of National Symbols
- Author: Tim Marshall
- Series: Politics of Place
- Publisher: Scribner
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Pages: 305
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781501168352, 9781501168345, 1501168347, 1501168355
- Resource ID: LLS:9781501168352
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-21T17:20:34Z
Tim Marshall is a leading authority on foreign affairs with more than thirty years of reporting experience. He was diplomatic editor at Sky News and before that worked for the BBC and LBC/IRN radio. He has reported from forty countries and covered conflicts in Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. He is the author of Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World; The Age of Walls: How Barriers Between Nations Are Changing Our World; and A Flag Worth Dying For: The Power and Politics of National Symbols. He is founder and editor of the current affairs site TheWhatandtheWhy.com.