Well, this one is somewhat interesting, but a bit of a mess. It's sort of an almanac, and does contain interesting trivia about many of the countries, but I have to question the veracity of much of the information, particularly the statistics which are really supposed to be the core of the book. The author seems to either be intentional selective about how he defines "ownership" of land, or else he is inexperienced with statistical analysis. Either way, there is clear confirmation bias for his thesis that too much land is in the hands of too small a minority of people. His claims that the Queen of England OWNS the entirety of the UK and all British protectorates stands out in particular. While it may be technically true that the Crown owns all the land it rules, the Queen Herself doesn't own it, nor in practice does this equate to a single owner. It's largely an antiquated formality, and would be an interesting curiosity as a side note, but distracts from the reality of modern practice.

Worth flipping through, but don't risk citing it for research. ( )

Who Owns the World is a fascinating book that explores who owns land in every country and territory in the world. A fun book to flip through. It turns out that Queen Elizabeth II owns a sixth of the entire land surface on Earth – but that’s because she technically owns all of Canada and Australia. This book is more than fun facts. Only 15% of the world’s population lays claim to land. Could too much land in the hands of too few people be a leading cause of poverty? ( )

Not exactly what I was expecting. I thought it would be a narrated almanac or a list of facts and the author's interpretations of the stats given about land ownership across the world. What we are given is an irate person who has an agenda he is poorly trying to push. If you skip Part 1 Overview and Analysis the rest of the book is an interesting almanac with lots of information and usually a quick piece of trivia about each country. You also will most likely not notice the little sniping and snarking for what they are.

However if you actually read the first section the author has a grand view of 'what is wrong with the world'. Namely, too much land in the hands of too few. He starts on a tirade about the US Government owning ~%33 of the country and takes pot shots at people like Ted Turner for personally owning 1.8 Million acres. Then later he makes a big deal about the Queen of England owning 1/6 of the land surface of the entire planet. He starts by blurring the 'Crown' with the 'Queen' and then claims she owns all of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Britain and several other smaller countries as well as %60 of Antarctica. While the Queen is one of the richest land owners on the planet, it comes from her personal wealth not 'owning' entire countries.

The author seems to think that the world is in the trouble it is in because too many people do not have land of their own and that something should be done about this. He never gives any suggestions on what should be done or how he thinks this utopia should come about, but that doesn't deter him from whining. Apparently in one country, the ruling king gives every male at the age of 18 a home in the city and one in the country and the author seemed to think this was an excellent idea to be carried out, only expanding it to include women as well. Even though to do this lies in direct contradiction too few controling too much, since who will decide who gets what land and when?

So to sum up, Land is wealth and the poor are poor because they don't have any, and by reallocating the land we will make everyone richer. Of course he ignores the fact that not all land is equal (he estimated that Canada was worth about $5,000 an acre on average for the entire country), and many uses of land for cost effectiveness and efficiency require larger tracts of land. Which would produce more wheat a 500 acre field or 100-5 acre plots with houses and paths for travel? You'd be lucky to graze 2 cows on a 5 acre lot in many of the Western states, but where would you get your water? Overall while the author had a book of facts (which were interesting) he was rather ignorant of the real land scape. While I agree with his assessment for very narrow list of countries in Africa and Asia, his general disdain is rather ignorant in my opinion. ( )

This is a book for reference, and not to be read like a novel or an essay. It's full of interesting information, many of which are usually overlooked in newspapers and tv news. It can help to have a more clear background on what really happens in the world ( )

The premise for this work is good: of all the world's land surface, who really owns all the various bits of it? Clearly land ownership is not equitably distributed; some own much more than others. This book presents reams of statistics about land ownership in just about every country and territory in the world, and most of these numbers have been well researched and are as good a set of numbers as you are likely to see, given that some countries have almost zero real data collection processes about these matters, and many more are in such a state of inner turmoil that determining who 'owns' what is a frustrating and near-meaningless endeavor.

But this book is marred by a major flaw, that of trying to impose the author's particular feelings on how land ownership should be dealt with, rather than investigating the reasons and history of how it is currently set up, and just how the world economies are very dependent on such distribution. In the first chapter, the author continuously points out that there is plenty of land for everybody, several acres for every man, woman, and child on the planet, and that if only such a equal distribution could be achieved, all the worlds troubles would go away. While it is certainly true that many of the world's wars have been over ownership of particular pieces of land, what this author misses are several facts:

1. Large portions of the world's surface, while technically marginally habitable, in reality will not support any type of heavy-density human presence. Areas such as the Australian outback, the huge Artic tundra areas, large tracts of land around and in the Sahara desert, the many heavily mountainous regions of the world should all be subtracted from the available land area that is available for divvying up amongst the world's population. There are very good reasons why so much of the world's population is concentrated in relative small areas of the planet, but this book does not delve into those reasons.

2. Many areas of the world can be farmed, but the most efficient, greatest yield-producing methods for many of these areas cannot be done in small plots, but rather require large tracts that lend themselves to mechanized farming methods, or have so little vegetation that their only viable use is grazing land at many acres per cow.

3. The best pieces of land are relatively small in comparison to all the rest, and like any item in short supply, there is strong competition for such pieces. Once someone has managed to gain control of such areas, they will normally do all they can to maintain that control. As the author presents no concrete plan for just how his 'equitable' distribution of land could be achieved, his harping about just how much of the world is controlled by so few comes across as a very irritating whine.

This same author viewpoint leads him to make some claims, that while they are 'technically' true, are absurd on their face, such as the claim that Queen Elizabeth II personally holds close to a sixth of world's land. Most of this is actually claimed by the British Crown, not the Queen personally, and if the Crown ever tried to actually invoke that claim (such as all of Australia) and kick all the current inhabitants out, there would be instant and massive opposition. Of much more interest was the author's detailing of what the Queen actually holds in her own name (not the Crown's), and this list is quite impressive, truly showing her to actually be one of largest landholders in the world. If all of this book had been like this one area, it would have truly been a very useful and enlightening look at who really owns the world. As it is, the only really useful items here are the statistics he has compiled on all the various countries listing area, population, and general form of land ownership, as this data is not easily findable all collected in one place.

Note also that this is not a book for casual reading; other than the first chapter the balance is composed of data listings for each country (or, for the US, each state) followed by a short half page set of tidbits about the area, some of which, while interesting, have nothing to do with land ownership.

Recommended only for statistical use.

---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat) ( )