Owning the Earth: The Transforming History of Land Ownership
In this careful, comprehensive historical study, Linklater (Measuring America, 2002) reviews centuries of expansion and settlement to explore how the ownership of land has negatively affected society. From the sixteenth-century assertions of British rights to survey and collect rent in St. John’s, Newfoundland (wryly characterized as “absurd” by the author);  to more prosaic discussions of fences and mapping; and up to a bracing review of  Che Guevara’s fight for land redistribution, Owning the Earth casts a wide net over the subject of property. Linklater discusses politics, agriculture, colonialism, slavery, democracy, communism, and even intellectual property. His geographic view is wide, including North America, Latin America, Europe, Russia, China, and the Middle East. Linklater’s shifting narrative can, on occasion, be dizzying or dense, but the subject matter is so important and his dedication so thorough that this singular work should be welcomed by all readers interested in land-use history and future global concerns. --Colleen Mondor