Table of Contents
List of Illustrations xiii
Prologue: Uncommon Ground 1
1 Transaction 3
2 Foundation 13
3 Population 23
4 Exploitation 35
5 Demarcation, Eviction, Possession 41
6 Exploration 49
Part I Borderlines 55
1 When the Worm Forgave the Plough 57
2 The Size of All the Earth 75
3 Just Where Is Everything 91
4 At the Edges of Worlds 111
5 Drawing a Distinction 143
Part II Annals of Acquisition 155
1 Up and Out and On the Level 157
2 Islands of the Dammed 163
3 Red Territory 187
4 The Land and the Gentry 247
Part III Stewardship 263
1 The Tragedies of Improvement 265
2 The Accumulators of Space 301
3 Going Nowhere and Everywhere 331
4 The World Made Wild Again 349
5 On Wisdom, Down Under 365
6 Parks, Recreation, and Plutonium 383
Part IV Battlegrounds 405
1 The Dreary Steeples 407
2 The Unholy Land 413
3 Death on the Rich Black Earth 439
4 Concentration and Confiscation 465
Part V Annals of Restoration 497
1 Maori in Arcady 499
2 Strangers in the Hebrides 533
3 Bringing Africa Home 563
4 Aliens in Wonderland 581
5 Trust Is Everything 595
Epilogue: Yet Now the Land Is Drowning 613
With Great Thanks 637
A Glossary of Terms, Some Possibly Unfamiliar, Associated with Land and Its Ownership 643
Bibliography 659