Stanfords welcomes James Crawford to talk in conversation with Tim Marshall about his new book The Edge of the Plain, examining the history of borders and their role in shaping our world today.

Today, there are more borders in the world than ever before in human history. In this book James Crawford argues that our enduring obsession with borders has brought us to a crisis point: that we are entering the endgame of a process that began thousands of years ago, when we first started dividing up the earth.

Combining history, travel and reportage, The Edge of the Plain follows the story of borders from the earliest known boundary markers toward the virtual frontiers of the internet, and the shifting geography of a world beset by climate change.

Crawford encounters borders of all kinds, from a melting border in the Austro-Italian Alps to the only place on land where Europe and Africa meet; from Banksy’s ‘Walled Off Hotel’ in the West Bank to the fault lines of the US/Mexico border.

With nationalism, climate change, globalisation, technology and mass migration all colliding with ever-hardening borders, something has to give. Crawford also asks the seemingly impossible question: will borders one day collapse completely?