From the Silk Roads to the Berlin Wall, discover the globe-turning history of human migration.
We are a species in motion—from the first steps of Homo sapiens across Africa to America's "melting pot." And when we move—in search of better things, or against our will—our beliefs and skills clash and combine, reshaping society time and again.
In this visionary Shortest History of Migration, Ian Goldin uncovers key moments of cultural exchange while carefully examining empire, slavery, and war. Throughout, we meet famous explorers (Zheng He), exiles (Pablo Neruda), and everyday people in extraordinary circumstances: a Jewish man saved by the Kindertransport, a Japanese gardener who blossomed in Mexico City.
Today, freedom of movement is being curtailed, even as climate change and conflict mobilize people everywhere around the world. Goldin reminds us that passports at every border are a modern invention (he traces the "birth of big brother" to World War I), revealing the folly of trying to halt migration—and proposing commonsense policy instead.
A gripping chronicle of want and wanderlust, this is a moving portrait of humanity—in every sense of the word.
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Ian Goldin is Director of the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford and Professor of Globalization and Development. From 2001 to 2006, he was Vice President of the World Bank and the Bank’s Director of Development Policy. Following the end of apartheid, Ian was economic adviser to President Mandela and Chief Executive of the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Previously, Ian was Principle Economist at the EBRD and Head of Programmes at the OECD Development Centre. Ian has received wide recognition, including having been knighted by the French Government for his services to development, and nominated Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum.