Trespassing

How did a nation built on a vision of "wide open spaces" come to believe in the private ownership of land? John Hanson Mitchell, one of our foremost nature writers, explores this question. Building upon the heartbreaking story of a tribe of "praying Indians" who bought into the colonists' legal system and settled their own 2000-acre tract, only to be dispossessed and herded into a detention camp, Mitchell explores every variation of this important issue. From the beginning of British common law up to the most recent Supreme Court takings decisions, Trespassing follows the evolution of our attitudes toward land.

First sentence: Sometimes in September, when the air is still and the atmosphere is charged with that aura of dormant energy that lingers in certain places long after history has passed them by, I go down to the hill where Sarah Doublet last lived and sit on a wall above Nagog Pond.

Year

1998

Language

English

Publisher

Counterpoint

Editions

4

Pages

320

ISBN

9780738201467

Data source: Wikidata