Migrants: The Story of Us All
(Paperback)
Available Formats
Paperback
Published: 31st January 2023
Hardback
Published: 23rd May 2023
Paperback
Published: 28th May 2024
Publishing Details
Migrants: The Story of Us All
By (Author) Sam Miller
Little, Brown Book Group
Abacus
28th May 2024
7th March 2024
United Kingdom
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
Migration, immigration and emigration
304.809
Physical Properties
Paperback
448
Width 126mm, Height 196mm, Spine 36mm
350g
Description
Migrants cuts through the toxic debates to tell the rich and collective stories of humankind's urge to move
'Fascinating... Miller's perspective may be just what we need' Daily Telegraph'Enjoyable, provocative and timely' Spectator'Timely and empathetic: a rare combination on this most controversial issue' Remi Adekoya'Tremendous: blends the personal and the panoramic to great effect' Robert WinderHumans are, in fundamental ways, a migratory species, more so than any other land mammal. For most of our existence , we were all nomads, and some of us still are. Houses and permanent settlements are a relatively late development - dating back little more than twelve thousand years. Borders and passports are much more recent. From the Neanderthals, Alexander the Great, Christopher Columbus and Pocahontas to the African slave trade, Fu Manchu, and Barack Obama, Migrants shows us that it is only by understanding how migration and migrants have been viewed in the past, that we can re-set the terms of the modern-day debate about migration.Migrants presents us with an alternative history of the world, in which migration is restored to the heart of the human story. And in which humans migrate for a wide range of reasons: not just because of civil war, or poverty or climate change but also out of curiosity and a sense of adventure. On arrival, migrants are expected both to assimilate and encouraged to remain distinctive; to defend their heritage and adopt a new one. They are sub-human and super-human; romanticised and castigated, admired and abhorred. Migrants tells us that this is not a new narrative; this is the history of us all, part of everybody's backstory - for those who consider themselves migrants and those who do not.Reviews
Timely and empathetic: a rare combination on this most controversial issue * Remi Adekoya, author of Biracial Britain *
Tremendous: blends the personal and the panoramic to great effect, reminding us - in narrating epic migration stories from Aeneas to the Windrush - that the human urge to move about in search of a better life is as old and natural as time itself * Robert Winder, author of Bloody Foreigners: The Story of Immigration to Britain *
Fascinating... Miller's perspective may be just what we need * Daily Telegraph *
Enjoyable, provocative and timely * Spectator *
Migrants is an important contribution to the topic of human migration... thoughtful... Miller's book offers a whole new way of seeing the world * Financial Times *
Author Bio
Sam Miller was born and brought up in London, but has spent much of his adult life in India. He is a former BBC journalist and is the author of Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity (2009), Blue Guide: India (2012) and A Strange Kind of Paradise: India Through Foreign Eyes (2014). He is also the translator of The Marvellous (But Authentic) Adventures of Captain Corcoran (2016) by Alfred Assollant.
