Land Power

Land Power is a fascinating book on the power of land inequality in history and the large land reshufflings of the past and present. It is a must-read to think about the coming struggles over land in the 21st century – Thomas Piketty, New York Times–bestselling author of CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURYLand has always been a source of economic wealth. This captivating book demonstrates that it has also been a fountainhead of political and social power, profoundly shaping the organization and political structures of many societies – Daron Acemoglu, co-author of POWER AND PROGRESS“Land” - Four simple letters. Four enormous impacts: on racial divides, gender inequality, the struggle for development, and our precarious environment. In this powerful and compelling book, Michael Albertus re-invents how to think about that most simple but profound force shaping our lives - the ground beneath us – Ben Ansell, author of WHY POLITICS FAILSLand Power is an important book dealing with a timeless but underappreciated issue: who owns the land. It illuminates how social hierarchies and injustice have been historically built around unfair land rights and provides a fascinating array of examples of how reshuffling land can help tackle these pressing issues – Francis Fukuyama, author of LIBERALISM AND ITS DISCONTENTSA vigorously argued account of how patterns of landholding shape and are shaped by political power. Global in scope, Land Power is lively, well-informed, and highly illuminating – Patrick Joyce, author of REMEMBERING PEASANTSNow more than ever it’s essential to talk about land use with the widest lens possible. Land Power offers new insights into how public and private initiatives worldwide can effectively safeguard ecosystems and societies for future generations of all life – Kristine Tompkins, President and Co-founder of Tompkins Conservation

With a sweeping scope across history and around the world, Albertus offers his readers a novel view on the rise of the modern world. Land - who controls it, who owns it, who works it, and efforts to alter all this - sits at the basis of social power and political power in the modern world

Michael Albertus is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. The author of three previous books, his writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and elsewhere. He lives in Chicago, Illinois.