"A captivating and compelling account of how civilizations have made use of natural landscapes for their long-term benefit. From the astounding Incan road system to the building of Chicago and the Panama Canal, humans have a long history of shaping the Earth to build connections between ourselves. Samson demonstrates how we are not always prisoners of geography, but increasingly its masters."

Lewis Dartnell, author of "Origins: How the Earth Shaped Human History"

“Earth Shapers tells stories that have been ignored because they do not fit the old narrative; [this is] a book that reshapes our story of global human geography.”

Danny Dorling, 1971 Professor of Geography, University of Oxford

"Humans are inveterate environmental meddlers. No guide to their excesses is more eloquent, more learned, more surprising, more amusing, or more convincing than Samson. His lively language and minatory message are as entertaining as they are unsettling."

Felipe Fernández-Armesto, William P. Reynolds Professor of History, University of Notre Dame

“This bold and rich collection ranges widely across five continents and an array of fascinating case studies, casting light on various meanings of geographical connectivity. Reading this book it’s impossible not to learn something new.”

Sara Caputo, director of studies in history and senior research fellow, University of Cambridge, and author of “Tracks on the Ocean”

“Modern geography is the geography of our personal, political, and sociological souls. We urgently need to know what we are. Samson holds up a mirror, showing us ourselves reflected in what we’ve done. Fascinating, original, and prescient.”

Charles Foster, author of “Cry of the Wild”

"Accessible and erudite, Earth Shapers makes for a refreshing perspective on the relationship between human and physical geography. Ranging confidently from Chicago to Mozambique to Korea just as it travels across the history of technology, cities, nationalism, colonialism, and liberation . . . it is an original look at the geography of connection in an age where so much attention is given to the geography of division, to walls, and borders."

Lewis Baston, author of "Borderlines"

"Well researched and wide-ranging, this book joins the dots, showing the power of connections between places."

Cliff Hague OBE, emeritus professor of planning and spatial development, Heriot-Watt University

“An illuminating glimpse of the chain reactions of human and physical geography.”

Financial Times, on “Invisible Lines”

“A chance to see the world anew through the eyes of a wonderfully curious new writer.”

The Observer, on “Invisible Lines”

“A triumph, a volume of great good sense and imagination which brims with fascinations. . . . Endlessly interesting.”

The Spectator, on “Invisible Lines”

“A fascinating, detailed exploration of the hidden boundaries that carve up the world. . . . It is a pleasure to accompany Samson to the Malaria Belt, inside eruvim (markers of a single domestic space within which fewer Sabbath regulations apply), or along the border of Portugal to discover why vultures prefer not to cross it.”

The Telegraph, on “Invisible Lines”

“A fascinating exploration of the lesser-known and more subtle borders across the earth and the surprising ways in which they shape our lives.”

i news, on “Invisible Lines”

“Samson’s clear and concise writing, his engaging style and the wide range of topics he covers make Invisible Lines an absorbing study of the boundaries we set to divide and demarcate the physical and cultural worlds and how this affects us in our day-to-day lives.”

Winnipeg Free Press, on “Invisible Lines”

“A compelling exploration.”

The Miramichi Reader, on “Invisible Lines”

“Intricately detailed explanation of how each invisible line came to be, as well as what it can tell us about the world and our place within it. . . . A fascinating read.”

Geographical, on “Invisible Lines”

“Fascinating. . . . A truly original adventure into new ways of exploring a sense of place.”

Simon Jenkins, on “Invisible Lines”

“Old worlds enhanced, new worlds exposed and challenged. . . . A wise and thought-provoking series of raids across borders we thought we knew and others made visible to us, by Samson’s forensic eye.”

Iain Sinclair, on “Invisible Lines”