Widespread private land ownership shaped all American law

Evidence

The legal history of the United States was shaped by one fact more than any other: the widespread ownership of land. This colored every aspect of law—​and every aspect of society. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 290

Categorization

• XREF: This is the master thread the whole polyad sits inside — land abundance and private tenure explains why American law diverged from English law. — connects to: Interior’s power rests on federal ownership of nearly a third of the nation’s lands — Richard J. Lazarus, The Making of Environmental Law, 783; Those deemed most virtuous in early US politics were also the largest landowners. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 359; Blackstone’s absolutist view of private property shaped American law from its founding — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 940 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Entrenched property-ownership ideals defeated the effort to treat land as a social resource #corroborates (0.85) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 1077
• US history centers fundamentally on control and commodification of land #expands (0.78)
• US capitalism bypassed feudalism because private property arrived with colonization #expands (0.72) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 609