Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World [B1270]

2022 PB in excellent condition. The bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and The Perfectionists explores the notion of property-bought, earned, or received; in Europe, Africa, North America, or the South Pacific-through human history, how it has shaped us and what it will mean for our future. Land-whether meadow or mountainside, desert or peat bog, parkland or pasture, suburb or city-is central to our existence. It quite literally underlies and underpins everything. Employing the keen intellect, insatiable curiosity, and narrative verve that are the foundations of his previous bestselling works, Simon Winchester examines what we human beings are doing-and have done-with the billions of acres that together make up the solid surface of our planet. Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World examines in depth how we acquire land, how we steward it, how and why we fight over it, and finally, how we can, and on occasion do, come to share it. Ultimately, Winchester confronts the essential question: who actually owns the world's land-and why does it matter?

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: " really liked this book and have recommended it to several. Food for thought about how land/ownership/NON ownership has shaped our modern day world."; "This is an exploration of all the ways we have screwed each other over to try to claim land as our own. It explores the way different countries and cultures have addressed it over time. And of course, colonialism. Written from a pretty eurocentric point of view. You could tell he tried not to, but it oozed in."; "Not quite what I had imagined - more a collection of historical anecdotes than academic study of wealth generation - but still interesting and well written."; "I am a former land title researcher. This book is phenomenal. And it breaks my heart, as it should. It should be read by anyone interested in basic history.": "Wonderful but also haunting in how people have used and abused others to acquire something we didn't create and take for granted."