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Distributed for University Press of New England

Trespassing

An Inquiry into the Private Ownership of Land

Distributed for University Press of New England

Trespassing

An Inquiry into the Private Ownership of Land

Trespassing, “a thoughtful, beautifully written addition to environmental and regional literature” (Kirkus Reviews), is a historical survey of the evolution of private ownership of land, concentrating on the various land uses of a 500-acre tract of land over a 350-year period. What began as wild land controlled periodically by various Native American tribes became British crown land after 1654, then private property under US law, and finally common land again in the late twentieth century. Mitchell considers every aspect of the important issue of land ownership and explores how our attitudes toward land have changed over the centuries.

320 pages | 6 x 9 1/4 | © 2015

History: American History


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Table of Contents

Preface to the New Edition • Acknowledgments • Chronology • Players • Prologue • A Certain Tract of Land • Owners and Outcasts • Should Trees Have Standing? • The Cords of Christ’s Tent • To Have and to Hold • Common Ground • Cross-Lot Walking • Terra Nullius * Holding Ground • Out of the Quiver of the Scriptures • The Last of the Commons • Islands of the Dead • Who Really Owns North America? • The Tawny Vermin • Their Heirs and Assigns Forever • The Intelligence of Salamanders • The Landing • Drawn and Quartered • Epilogue

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