This Land Is Whose Land?
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When Simon Winchester works on a big topic, he The big Subject. His new book, “Land: How to Hunger for Ownership of the Modern World,” Travels through the centuries and to Ukraine, New Zealand, Scotland, the United States, and elsewhere. On this week’s podcast, he talks about the history of private land ownership and the many aspects of this history that caught his attention.
“I find the whole notion of trespass absolutely fascinating,” says Winchester. “There’s this widespread sentiment – it’s not uniquely American, but it’s powerful American – once you adopt it, you put up posted signs, you put barbed wire, you fence, people. To keep away. Because one in five ‘bundles of rights,’ lawyers call it – when you buy land, you get these rights – do you have the absolute right of the law to get other people out of your land? Right. In Sweden, in Norway, in Denmark, you can’t do that. “Instead, he says, in those countries there is the concept of” all men’s rights “, which means, for example, if you are Swedish So you can roam the land of Sweden as you wish. You can’t go to people’s living rooms and ask for a cup of coffee. You can’t go to their garden. But if they are mine, as I am I would, 130 acres, in Sweden, have any right to roam. You have got to behave yourself. You can’t set fire to it or dig huge holes in it, but you Allows all Swedish people the right to live on all Swedish lands. And this concept is now spreading with mercy in my view. “
Journalist Amelia Pang visited the podcast to talk about her new book, “made in China,” In which he explores the brutal system of forced labor undergoing China’s fast-growing export industry. She tells the story of an average American woman who bought an inexpensive Halloween decoration during a clearance sale after a year’s vacation.
“They didn’t really need it,” Vedana says. “It had been sitting in its storage for almost two years before he actually remembered to open it. And so she was very surprised to find this SOS message written by the prisoner who eventually created this product. This goes to show the triviality of the many products that are made in these camps. In my book, I try to go into: Do we Americans really need this stuff so much? And how much of those factors contribute to our shopping habits and consumer culture that force Chinese factories to outsource labor camps? “
In this week’s episode, Tina Jordan looks at the history of Book Review during this year of its 125th anniversary; Alexandra Alter’s publication has news from the world; And Dwight Garner and Parul Sehgal talk about books they have recently reviewed and how they approach reading the classics. Pamela Paul is the host.
Books discussed by Times critics this week are:
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