GEOGRAPHY IS DESTINY

Why is Britain so different from its neighbors? This book delivers some answers and raises new questions.

Morris, a professor of history and classics at Stanford and author of Why the West Rules—for Now, believes that if we are to understand the present, especially the reasons for and consequences of the Brexit referendum, we have to dig into the deep past. Consequently, he begins the story of Britain when rising sea levels separated the islands from the continent, and then he walks readers through the long parade of invasions—Romans, Vikings, Normans, etc.—that would slowly create the British people. The British identity developed alongside an instinctive distrust of mainland Europeans, and Morris finds many historical precedents for the Brexit vote, from the rejection of the Catholic Church to the seemingly endless global expansion of the British Empire. In this sense, the oddity is not that Britain left the European Union but that it joined it in the first place—although, at the time, it was more of a customs union than a vehicle for social homogeneity. The final vote was close, but the result was clear, and culture prevailed over economics. Morris, who is the sort of historian who likes to get out of the office, vividly chronicles his tours around Britain to assess the situation and discovers that, generally, the country is doing all right. There has not been the catastrophe expected by the Remainers or the boom predicted by the Leavers. In typical fashion, Britain has muddled its way to a decent outcome. As for the future, Morris muses that Europe may become an irrelevant question for Britain, as the key issue is dealing with a rising China, which is determined to establish a dominant presence in every corner of the world. Even tourist souvenirs from the author’s hometown are “Made in China.” In this immensely detailed book, Morris effectively combines history, memoir, and current events.

A remarkable story told with clear-minded authority.