The Long Land War

“Guldi’s global study of land redistribution and allied political movements over 150 years considers how these can inform responses to current crises that affect refugees, including global warming.”—Andrew Robinson, Nature

Winner of the 2023 Nautilus Book Award silver medal

“An epic work of breathtaking scope and moral power, The Long Land War offers the definitive account of the rise and fall of land rights around the world over the last 150 years. Jo Guldi’s global history of property tells the story of some of the most important social transformations of the 20th century, from land reform and mass evictions to the rise of corporate agriculture and resistance movements fighting for the right to land and housing. Read this amazing achievement: an intellectual tour de force, a poetics of tragedy and hope, and a call to action connecting insights from the past to the great challenges of our time.”—Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

“Jo Guldi offers a compelling, extremely innovative account of the major movements for land in the late-nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries—one that could not be more timely.”—Jess Gilbert, author of the award-winning Planning Democracy: Agrarian Intellectuals and the Intended New Deal

“It is said we can’t own the land; the land owns us. Jo Guldi’s The Long Land War is a tour-de-force that sets the land into its philosophical, colonial, spiritual, and practical contexts.”—Alastair McIntosh, author of Soil and Soul: People versus Corporate Power

“The Long Land War is an exhilarating read. It puts the struggle for land rights at the heart of progressive politics in the context of the climate crisis and rampant inequality. This is a profound, elegant, globe-spanning, and ultimately hopeful book.”—Sunil Amrith, author of Unruly Waters

“The Long Land War is one of the most interesting and different analyses of familiar conditions. It is about a war centered on circumstances we rarely associate with war. And in that sense the book forces us to consider and recognize that, for many people, access to housing is a battle that will only grow.”—Saskia Sassen, author of Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages