Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies

by Michael Albertus

An award-winning political scientist shows that a society’s path to prosperity, sustainability, and equality depends on who owns the land

For millennia, land has been a symbol of wealth and privilege. But the true power of land ownership is even greater than we might think. In Land Power, political scientist Michael Albertus shows that who owns the land determines whether a society will be equal or unequal, whether it will develop or decline, and whether it will safeguard or sacrifice its environment.

Modern history has been defined by land reallocation on a massive scale. From the 1500s on, European colonial powers and new nation-states shifted indigenous lands into the hands of settlers. The 1900s brought new waves of land appropriation, from Soviet and Maoist collectivization to initiatives turning large estates over to family farmers. The shuffle continues today as governments vie for power and prosperity by choosing who should get land. Drawing on a career’s worth of original research and on-the-ground fieldwork, Albertus shows that choices about who owns the land have locked in poverty, sexism, racism, and climate crisis—and that what we do with the land today can change our collective fate.

Global in scope, Land Power argues that saving civilization must begin with the earth under our feet.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Economics, Geography, Political Science, World History

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 14, 2025

Reviews

[Robin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Neoliberal, neoconservative, counter-revolutionary covered over with a thin veneer of identity politics. I should've stopped reading the first time Albertus made the tragedy of the commons argument. Not surprised to find out he is a prof at the University of Chicago -- Milton Friedman's alma matter.

[Ula Tardigrade · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and often thought-provoking take on the links between land and power, with a truly global scope - the author examines cases from every corner of the world, from Patagonia to the Canadian Arctic and from Australia to the RPA.

I learned a lot from this book, although it would benefit from more thorough editing - there is plenty of repetition and the style is rather dry. Still, it is worth reading to gain a fresh perspective not only on the roots of many of the world's problems, but also on possible solutions.

Thanks to the publisher, Basic Books, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

[James Blume · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book after reading Daron Acemoglu praise for it. Coming in, I was very excited--the topic of land and its link to economic and political outcomes is fascinating.

However, the book itself was rather disappointing. Michael Albertus does not dedicate anytime to what makes land special. For example, why is there anything different from a land reallocation program to an alternative program that reallocates a different form of wealth such as cash transfers? Is there something special about the political power produced by land, which is not produced by other assets? Is there something especially persistent about land reallocations?

Instead, Michael Albertus organizes the book as a series of anecdotes each with their own lesson. For example, how did land produce gender inequality in Canada or how did Brazil's land reforms lead to environmental degradation. While each of these case studies was somewhat interesting, they felt loosely connected given the lack of a strong motivating theoretical framework. Unlike, "Why Nations Fail," which pulls of this same structure, "Land Power" does not quite hit the same height.

[Jeni Enjaian · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had higher hopes for this book than the reading experience ended up giving. While I really appreciate the conceit that the author attempted to follow through with in this narrative, I struggled with the wya that he developed the point. Each chapter is full of detailed stories regarding the ways that land redistribution affected various groups of people. I found all of those fascinating and think that they could have, if better organized, led to the much larger point that Albertus attempted to make with this work. Instead, this work struggles with organization. He attempts a topical organization, mostly with how certain groups were affected by how others coopted the land from underneath them and, in some chapters, how they attempted to make it right. Although I appreciated that he told the stories of all of these different people, I think that made the focus too granular for the much larger picture that he tried to paint with the narrative.

[Bobby Desmond · Rating 2 out of 5]

Land Power explores case studies of massive land reallocations across the world and throughout the past three centuries to provide insights on the tendency of those policies to ingrain or reverse underdevelopment, resource extraction, and racial, gender, economic, and political disparities. It primarily focuses on the power countries can obtain by exploiting land for agricultural uses rather than for residential or industrial uses. The author takes a strong stand in favor of individual land titles that are excludable and transferable as opposed to collective and cooperative reforms, believing that such policies serve to create a more just society. Although I didn’t find myself in any major disagreements with the author, I didn’t particularly enjoy this book, as I was expecting insights on other American land policies at a more personal and local level while this book approaches the topic from a comparative political science perspective on a global scale. That’s entirely my fault, not the author’s. I simply didn’t know what I was getting myself into. However, given how niche that topic is, I expect many other readers to find themselves in a similar position. I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone, except those interested in the macroeconomic policies of developing nations or nations undergoing major political reforms.

[Cabot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Any book that attempts to fit the course of societies into a single deterministic framework (like the deeply problematic “geography is destiny” school) makes me skeptical. For what it’s worth, Albertus’ argument— that land, its ownership, and usage shapes how societies develop— is relatively easier to buy than others. However, where he goes from there varies wildly. Some points he makes are quite compelling, and I appreciate the references (albeit brief ones) to land grabs in Palestine and the histories of dispossession in South Africa and elsewhere. What tanks this book is when it talks about the “Great Reshuffle” and land reform. Albertus is very much a UChicago man whose uncritical acceptance of neoliberalism, top-down economic theories, and IMF/World Bank intervention is glaring and unfortunate. Likewise, the section on conservation where he seems to imply foreigners in the Global South are better able to take care of the environment than the people who live there didn’t sit well. Overall I would skip this one.

[IV · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt like being thrown abusively around a volleyball court at times, but extremely interesting, and helped me finish an essay I didn't want to write. Overall, 4/5, would recommend.

This is one of those books with a kind of obvious thesis- sure, land, a resource we all rely on, holds power. Which makes books like this a gamble. Some take foregone conclusions and run them into the ground with deeply incurious or incredibly boring analyses. But I liked Land Power 's approach- taking a seemingly obvious conclusion, and peeling back its layers to reveal why it attracts public awareness, and what the future of it might look like.

I'm rating this highly, despite some caveats, because I found it really interesting, and I think I learned a lot. I thought Land Power asked good questions and worked to set up other relevant topics for secondary research, such as the relationship between land and gender, violence, governmental conflict, apartheid, and other intersectional factors.

I don't disagree with critiques that Albertus needed to edit more. Despite the ease of reading, there are a lot of loose ends, and it feels scattered. While reading the section about land reforms in Latin America, I found myself thinking, particularly as Albertus did most of his travelling and research on the topic there, that this book might have felt more focused and conclusive to a point if he only focused on that region. As an American, I found the first section, on the history of American and Canadian land rights and ownership to be the most interesting part, but it's not revisited in either the section about successful land reform, or Part III, which focuses on reallocating land to indigenous groups in Australia and Africa. One could argue that as North America, Latin/Central America, and Africa and Australia, all have different kinds of governments, economies, social and cultural values, and indigenous groups, that it doesn't make sense to treat success in Latin America as an indicator of success anywhere else; or that an exploration of dismantling apartheid in South Africa, as interesting as it, doesn't say anything about how land might be returned to indigenous groups in America.

That being said, I'm surprised by the reviews that imply Albertus is a free-market capitalist trying to stretch his arguments with identity politics. I don't see how advocating for public lands, governmental reparations, and the co-existence of both individual and communal land ownership protections makes him a neoconservative or antirevolutionary. I don't think Albertus has all the answers- but I don't think a good academic would posit themselves as knowing everything about anything at all, particularly with a topic that's as currently prevalent and ever-changing as this one.

I think some discontent stems from the belief that this book was meant to be an instructional manual rather than a retrospect. And people are allowed to have expectations and rate books poorly based on them- I do it all the time, and I'm not going to be caught throwing stones from a glass house. But I'd argue his presentation of both sides of certain arguments is not him trying to undermine trailblazers or unconventional practices, but trying to reason through justifications real people come up with. For example, in the chapter on apartheid in South Africa, I don't think Albertus is being neutral about the unfairness of reapportioning lands to Black communities (though there are parts where it feels he shrinks back from total condemnation), only after they were stolen in the first place. I think he's pointing out that the issue flew under the radar for so long, and was considered justifiable by so many because of white victim complexes.

Ultimately, even with its structural issues, I thought Land Power was interested in all the right things, even where Albertus didn't have answers. Have we ever seen successful land shuffling, and under what circumstances? Where does land intersect with other social ills? I thought the section that explored the Black and Hispanic origins, and subsequent gentrification of Palm Springs was particularly good, and his thesis about land being indirectly tied to almost every powerful system was supported by the fact that I was able to find connections between this book and at least three completely distinct college courses I'm currently enrolled in. I enjoyed reading about each individual case, from China's misguided killing of sparrows to the ironic fight for the preservation of Doñana, even if they never clearly came together as one.

I don't think this is a perfect book, nor do I think Albertus is always right about some of the issues presented in these pages- but I'm not reading this as the all-knowing and all-true gospel of what land and power mean to each other. It's a resource, and as that, I found it valuable.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rather bloated. It could have used some good editing. Repetitive structure and maybe too much detail. More importantly: It's not as incisive as I would have liked. Full presentation of three basic ideas but not much relating of those to large historical trends.
The three basic ideas, the pitfalls of land redistribution scheme, are very important to be aware of. The motivations that distorted some of these schemes are made clear to a reasonable extent. The only this missing is how to deal the nature of the beast(s) that led to these distortions.
This book does handle the most important part of the process, being aware of the distorting motives of misogyny and political control and short term goals.
I'm not sure which of these will be most difficult to deal with but I'm guessing that it will be that humans don't seem to be very good at thinking to the 'seventh generation' or whatever it is that a Native American averred was his tribal ethos.

[Dawn Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book that talks about land, who OWNED it, the white people [because it is almost always white people] who stole it away, and the struggle of the indigenous peoples to GET. IT. BACK.

While the idea of this book is very important, I struggled with its delivery. Each chapter is very much the same, just with a different setting and time frame, the writing was often dull, and it was V E R Y repetitive, and after awhile, it all just ran together for me, and while I did learn some really interesting things [that I unfortunately cannot recall at this moment, which says a lot I know] with this read, I was honestly really glad when it was all over.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and Basic Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Samantha Neymark · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had interesting information, but it was not presented in an approachable way. We jumped all around the world, when I think it would have been more effective to focus on 3 or so different areas. This book read like a dissertation and therefore was very boring and hard to get through. It also expected the reader to already know the history of various countries. This topic is valuable, but I am sure there are better sources than this book.

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a valuable and interesting approach to colonial takings of land. Albertus focuses on not just the taking, but on the “reshuffling” of the taken lands to, ostensibly, help the dispossessed. There are a lot of ways this has been done, and is still being done, and most of them are problematic, as Albertus explains. There are best practices, but every situation is different, so it can be hard to apply them even with the best of intentions.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this book were awesome!! Learning about some history and how land played a part in decision making, power, policy, and more was interesting.

There are parts that felt like a stretch, but overall the book was a solid read.

I looked up some other works from the author and many are around this same subject. So, I am wondering if maybe other works are better.

[Katie · Rating 1 out of 5]

A great promise, but what an absolute waste of time. With the deft and depth of a middling undergraduate thesis, this book both spans too much and gets too bogged down in detail, failing to make any interesting points and often making a politically detestable mischaracterization or blatant bungling of history. Whoever edited this book is in the wrong career.

[BENALCAZAR VERGARA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to follow, and clear example to f how lad power shape countries destiny to prosperity or power and inequalities, exploitation in between

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish the book stuck to evaluating land ownership models instead of endlessly talking about oppression and all the "isms".

[Celia Chang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting points, but didn’t really keep my attention span overall, so could be more engaging in my opinion.

[Alex Curry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise with some cool findings, but the writing style feels drawn out and repetitive with its format. Could have been 2/3 the length with all the same takeaways/insight.

[Teddy Jorgensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF ap human geography textbook

[Ulysse Colonna · Rating 3 out of 5]

The books is a presentation of the issue of land rights and land ownership since roughly the 1500s. Some chapters are genuinely great such as the exploration of how the Andalusian national park came to be in the time of Franco. Unfortunately this sort of well-researched deep-dives are the exception and most of the chapters read a lot like Wikipedia summaries: interesting but far too general. So it was a bit of a disappointment.