The cultural opprobrium attached to immigration has been building at least since Aristotle’s day, according to former BBC journalist Sam Miller’s flawed, fascinating stab at a global history of migration. Alas, neither did they write. Nor did the Roma, until the 19th century; nor did the (very literate) Chinese of Victorian London. Migrants rarely find time to write, and where first-person accounts are missing, fantasy is bred. Some of it ( Asterix) is charming, some of it ( Fu Manchu) is anything but. Capitalism relies on labour to meet its drive for ever more growth, ever more accumulation, and we’ve seen huge movements of people to meet it. Sometimes that takes place within countries—think of the vast numbers of people who moved from China’s interior to the eastern seaboard as growth took off. Sometimes that means ruling classes encouraging migration. Migrants cuts through the toxic debates to tell the rich and collective stories of humankind’s urge to move.

Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? Miller thinks that humans naturally emigrate, and our unease about this is the result of pastoralism, cities, and other historical accidents. Ongoing Covid restrictions, reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions are all impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe.

This is exclusive content.

For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. This sets predictable limits on Miller’s work: after a certain passage of time, untold stories generally have to stay that way. Migrants, as a consequence, is uneven. We survey population movements in and out of Britain over the years: a resume of the case for the Viking invasions; a rundown of the Neolithic discovery of America; the horrors of the last slave ship to arrive in the United States. Mythic migrants – Aeneas of Troy, Brutus of Britain – have only walk-on parts. Miller looks at migrants through the broadest of lenses with intriguingly titled chapter heads, anecdotes and unexpected devices designed to keep the reader hooked. He covers migration from pre-historic days, Biblical times and charts the layers of overlapping movements of population out of Africa, across the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the Americas. He reminds us of how little has changed over the last three thousand years, and how migration has always been, since the very beginning, central to the human story. And remains so. This broad and sweeping overview may not appeal to academics and historians, but as Miller makes clear his purpose is to tell human stories. Migrants does not fall neatly into any category since it encompasses elements of history, travelogue and autobiography. The trouble with this line of argument is that there are umpteen “natural” reasons why people move about the earth. Humans naturally consume and lay waste to their immediate environment. Humans naturally overbreed. Humans

Migrants cuts through the toxic debates to tell the rich and collective stories of humankind's urge to move. 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. Over the last few years, DNA evidence has been brought to bear on the wider question of the location of that supposed Indo-European homeland, and a potential resolution to the AIT/OIT dispute. As a result, there’s a growing scientific consensus about ancient movements of population from the stretch of land usually referred to as the Russian steppes, covering eastern Ukraine, parts of southern Russia and western Kazakhstan. This region’s ancient nomadic inhabitants have been identified as the first Indo-Europeans – whose descendants can be found in large numbers throughout communities who speak IndoEuropean languages in Europe and Asia and, as a result of more recent migrations, in the Americas and Australasia. If you do nothing, you will be auto-enrolled in our premium digital monthly subscription plan and retain complete access for 65 € per month.Starting this I was a little worried that it might be one of those books that basically just glorifies traveling and the stupid upper-class liberal belief that everyone needs to "see the world." Being a big advocate for localization and simple living I just have no patience for that idea at this point. Fortunately, though Sam Miller is sort of into a lot of the same things I am and therefore puts a little more of a radical spin on the topic than the typical travelogue. The author's writing style is both eloquent and engaging. Miller's descriptions transport the reader to various settings, from the bustling streets of a war-torn city to the treacherous paths of a refugee camp. The prose is evocative, effectively conveying the characters' emotions and immersing the reader in their world. The pacing is well-balanced, capturing both the urgency and the quiet moments of introspection that define the characters' journeys. Tremendous: blends the personal and the panoramic to great effect’ Robert Winder, author of Bloody Foreigners