| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 310 words from this article are provided below; about 706 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative/World

John C. Weaver. The Great Land Rush and the Making of the Modern World, 1650–1900. Ithaca, N.Y.: McGill-Queen's University Press. 2003. Pp. x, 497. $39.95.
John C. Weaver has written one of those rare books that for many decades will grace lists of essential bibliography. In a way, it is a sequel to Walter Prescott Webb's The Great Plains (1931). But it is much more. Weaver assiduously analyzes the European appropriation and distribution of lands in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, a process achieved at the expense of the indigenous peoples as well as, in many instances, ecological imbalance. Webb, who pioneered interdisciplinary research in our profession, would appreciate Weaver's varied scholarly career, which cuts across fields including urban government, suburbanization, criminal justice, and world land occupation.	1
While this book deals primarily with landed property rights, Weaver comments only marginally upon mineral, timber, and water rights. In the three chapters in part one, he establishes the concepts and ideologies that underpin his study; the four chapters in part two describe the process of land seizures, allocations, and reforms; a final chapter on reallocation and an epilogue treating contemporary conditions comprise part three. Indeed, the organization of the book reflects its author's ability to conceptualize, compartmentalize, and to demonstrate ideologies with anecdotal evidence.	2
Although Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Russia reflected their own perspectives on land acquisition, British and American ideas and practices influenced innovations near the end of the great land rush. Weaver cites an array of examples to illustrate the variations in ideas about the origins, organization, and rationales of property rights before elaborating on the places, shapes, scale and velocity of land occupation. The urgency of the speculators was a common denominator, hence the incorporation of "rush" in the book's title.	. . .

There are about 706 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.