Politicians and journalists never tire of referring to "the political landscape". This book takes the well-worn metaphor literally and uses it to show how politicized the real landscape of continental Europe has been for centuries. The author finds his evidence of humanity's intervention in nature in the form of monuments and milestones, gardens, roads and border crossings, in landscape paintings and maps, and even in the anthropomorphic interpretations once given to formations of hills and rocks. An array of examples and illustrations is included.