An Atlas of Extinct Countries is a short., easy read full of interesting historical tidbits. The tone was lighter and the information less thorough than perhaps the title "Atlas" might suggest, with most sections no longer than 3 pages, including a map.  In order to come up with enough material for the book, the author even seems to have stretched credulity with some of the extinct "countries", actually admitting that no one knows if one of the countries ever officially existed, and if it did so, for only for a matter of days. I think it might have been more effective to include more data in longer sections about the genuinely extinct countries, instead of straining to find additional stories, however tenuous their historical reality was.

There's a light tone to the writing that makes for easy and enjoyable reading, but does feel jarring sometimes, given the suffering that happened in conjunction with many of the stories.  It is perhaps easy for a British white man to write about about these stories light-heartedly, as the suffering was generally experienced by the poor and residents of the global south. He does ruefully acknowledge the harms of imperialism and the blind ambition it often empowered. And yes, the people behind these shenanigans and any related suffering they caused were usually white men seeking glory and/or profits, whether for themselves or for a larger organization or country.  

The illustrations, especially the illustrated maps, are charming, and help provide some extra context and information for each story. And there are certainly some genuinely interesting episodes in history that I found myself wanting to learn more about, from the fascinating short-lived Tangier International Zone, which seems like an important moment in global queer history, among other aspects of historical importance, to the more sad story of Maryland in Africa, a tiny subset of the Liberian experiment in resettling former slaves back in Africa. I may follow some of these pieces of information to further research, but honestly I've forgotten many of the other stories already. 

So would I recommend this book? I think I would, if you're looking for a travel or summer read that is interesting without being too demanding. You can learn tidbits of history, without delving too deeply into the tragic repercussions of many of the stories, and perhaps find some topics of interest to research further.  Would I read more books by this author? Probably not. I prefer books with more rigorous scholarship, if I'm going to spend my time reading about a nonfiction topic. 

Either way, thank you to #NetGalley and Europa Editions for sharing a free digital advanced copy of #AnAtlasofExtinctCountries with me.