Land, Simon Winchester
Land, Simon Winchester
4 Rating(s)
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Land
How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World

Author: Simon Winchester

Narrator: Simon Winchester

Unabridged: 13 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 01/19/2021

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

“In many ways, Land combines bits and pieces of many of Winchester’s previous books into a satisfying, globe-trotting whole. . . . Winchester is, once again, a consummate guide.”—Boston Globe
The 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? Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

About Simon Winchester

Simon Winchester is the acclaimed author of many books, including The Professor and the Madman, The Men Who United the States, The Map That Changed the World, The Man Who Loved China, A Crack in the Edge of the World, and Krakatoa, all of which were New York Times bestsellers and appeared on numerous best and notable lists. In 2006, Winchester was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen. He resides in western Massachusetts.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on January 19, 2022

This we know: the earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. - from Chief Sealth’s letter to President Pierce on......more

Goodreads review by Antonia on February 01, 2021

I've long been a Winchester fan and was looking forward to this book, but its flaws are too gaping to overlook. While his writing about Indigenous people and issues is clearly meant to be sympathetic, it can most generously be described as condescending and colonial. The number of times Indigenous p......more

Goodreads review by aPriL does feral sometimes on January 29, 2022

'Land' by Simon Winchester is a terrific read! He has pulled together stories and facts about how people claimed possession of land all around the world from the beginning of human history up to the present. The author bought land in 1999 for himself, and he wondered at the psychological impulse for......more

Goodreads review by James on January 26, 2021

Maybe a 3.5 stars. Not really sure I can give it four stars. Surprisingly, the book's thesis about the significance of land - the dispossession of indigenous land and the ownership of settler peoples - and the resulting divisions/conflicts around the world had flaws. There is an uneven quality to th......more

Goodreads review by Lori on April 14, 2021

While I expected the book to be written on a popular level rather than an academic level, I expected the author would tackle land in a more traditional historical manner rather than by jumping from one incident to another in various parts of the world. On page 122 of 660 in the Kindle version, the a......more