What a great piece. The more I read about the loss of the commons and how that private property regime was forced onto North America, the more pissed off I get about it. Down with “No Trespassing” signs!
Thank you for that article. Eula Biss wrote about that as well, but I look forward to reading this one. It's how it was sold to us that everyone can't have the land , a paternal figure needs to hold it in trust for us...
So much history behind it all! If you want another good book about it that’s fun to read and slightly “eat the rich” in tone, Nick Hayes’s “The Book of Trespass” is a fun and eye-opening read. He trespasses on all these wealthy estates around England, walks, camps, sketches, and gives the history of how Lord Whosis stole (I mean acquired but I mean stole) that land, always from what had been held and used in common. And—I can’t remember if this was in Biss’s piece—there are all these connections between the wealth that allowed them to steal land from the commons, and the cross-Atlantic slave trade.
What a great piece. The more I read about the loss of the commons and how that private property regime was forced onto North America, the more pissed off I get about it. Down with “No Trespassing” signs!
And if anyone tries to go all “tragedy of the commons” on you, science writer Michelle Nijhuis published a great answer to why Garrett Hardin was wrong: https://aeon.co/essays/the-tragedy-of-the-commons-is-a-false-and-dangerous-myth
Thank you for that article. Eula Biss wrote about that as well, but I look forward to reading this one. It's how it was sold to us that everyone can't have the land , a paternal figure needs to hold it in trust for us...
So much history behind it all! If you want another good book about it that’s fun to read and slightly “eat the rich” in tone, Nick Hayes’s “The Book of Trespass” is a fun and eye-opening read. He trespasses on all these wealthy estates around England, walks, camps, sketches, and gives the history of how Lord Whosis stole (I mean acquired but I mean stole) that land, always from what had been held and used in common. And—I can’t remember if this was in Biss’s piece—there are all these connections between the wealth that allowed them to steal land from the commons, and the cross-Atlantic slave trade.
Don’t get me started on this stuff 😂
It's almost as if you write a great newsletter about it :)
Thanks for the book rec, that is right up my alley...
Newsletter, unhealthy obsession ... who's counting 🙃
I am a serial and unrepentant trespasser.
My opinion is if you don't have a fence between your land and public land, you trade that easy access for the occasional guest.