Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World was a really disappointing read. I went into the book expecting to learn more about the history and evolution of land ownership. Instead, I got chapter after chapter of badly edited stories about land, and our relationship to it. A few of the stories were interesting, but most were just kind of there. There were typos and editing errors throughout the book. The author also has a tendency to write paragraph long sentences, with clauses within clauses, wrapped in clauses to the point that it was tiring to read some of the early chapters. The overly long sentences were more of an issue early in the book — perhaps the editors didn’t bother reading the first few chapters?
I wanted to like this one, but it was hard to read and didn’t live up to the promise of its premise.