OTHER BOOKS

       Here is a list of books that take up topics covered in PROPERTY MATTERS in more detail. It is not a comprehensive bibliography. The goal is simply to tell a reader where to go for more information on particular aspects of the problems swirling around the right to property. Anyone wanting a more complete list should consult the bibliography of PROPERTY MATTERS, which goes on for 17 pages of fine-print.
      Where a work is available through the on-line book store at Amazon.com, a link is provided to allow direct ordering.  Clicking the link does not complete the process. You must still go through Amazon's ordering process, and you can still back out if you change your mind.  For works not available through Amazon, the name of the publisher is given. Prices quoted for Amazon do not include shipping. Whenever a book is in paperback, that is the price quoted.
      Topic headings are:  GENERAL | LAND USE | FORESTS | ENDANGERED SPECIES | ECOSYSTEMS | PUBLIC LANDS | FORFEITURES | POLITICS & PRISONER'S DILEMMA.

PROPERTY MATTERS: How Property Rights Are Under Assault -- And Why You Should Care
by James V. DeLong,
Free Press, 1997, hard cover, 390 pages
List: $27.50,  Amazon:  $24.75

TAKINGS: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain
by Richard A. Epstein
Harvard Univ. Press, hard cover - 1985, paperback - 1989, 362 pp.
List: $19.50,  Amazon: $19.50
       A classic. The publication of this work in 1985 started the contemporary property rights movement, and has provided a continuing theoretical base.  The most fundamental insight, among many, is that the courts have gone seriously wrong by analyzing the cases in terms of whether a taking has occurred within the definition of the Fifth Amendment.  In most cases, the answer should be that of course a taking has occurred; the question is whether the compensation was just.  For example, if property owners are required to build with setbacks, their property has indeed be taken -- but they are compensated by the similar provision imposed on all their neighbors, and the rule benefits everyone.  Once you start to analyze the situations in terms of the adequacy of the compensation rather than in terms of the definition of taking, the whole field makes much more sense.
       Epstein is extraordinarily prolific, and always illuminating and provocative.  Much of his work is not easily accessible because it is contained in legal journals, and is available only in law libraries or from paid on-line services, such as Lexis.  The bibliography of PROPERTY MATTERS has an extensive list of his articles that can guide your search.  However, his recent, SIMPLE RULES FOR A COMPLEX WORLD, is readily available, and has just been released in paperback.
[Harvard Univ. Press, hard cover - 1995, paperback - 1997, 384 pages
List: $17.95.  Amazon: $17.95.]  

LOST RIGHTS: The Destruction of American Liberty
by James Bovard
St. Martin's,  Hard Cover - 1994,  Paper - 1995,  408 pages 
List: $14.95. Amazon: $13.45. 
     A sobering account of the many ways in which the government is undermining people's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  While many other books look at one aspect or another of this problem, Bovard pulls it all together in a unique way.  Reading this book is bit like being caught in an avalanche -- the rocks just keep coming at you, in all shapes and sizes.  This pulling it all together is a very useful service, because the sheer number and variety of the assaults is an important part of the story.  

REGULATORY TAKINGS: Law, Economics, and Politics
by William Fischel
Harvard Univ. Press, 1995, hard cover,  415 pages 
List: $45.00.  Amazon: $45.00.    
        An extremely good book by an economics professor who is also a member of his local zoning board.  The book focuses on land use issues, steering clear of the wetlands and endangered species controversies.  Nor does it get into the use of the public domain.  This is too bad, because I would very much like to have Fischel's insights into these broader areas.  On questions of land use, the book is excellent, dissecting both economic and political issues with deft hand and a highly readable style.  The author also investigated the background of some of the major cases in property law, such as Pennsylvania Coal and Agins, and turned up some interesting oddities.
       The book is not readily classifiable politically, since the author pretty much goes wherever the facts take him.  He is sympathetic to the impulse behind zoning and land use controls, but he also notes the heavy price that anti-development philosophy is imposing on the residents of California, and on the ease with which residents manage to appropriate the value of undeveloped property.      

REGULATORY TAKINGS
by Steven J. Eagle
Michie Pub. Co., 1996, hard cover, 750 pages
List:  App. $100 - 125.  Not available from Amazon.
       A legal treatise on the topic, and an excellent one.  The author also expands the usual horizons of the treatise genre with excursions into such topics as public choice theory, the Coase Theorem, and chaos theory.  Eagle covers the environmental issues -- wetlands and endangered species -- only briefly, and does not take up the problems of the West at all, since none of these areas have produced much case law on takings.
      Anyone who wants a solid reference work on all aspects of the legal situation will want to get this book.
      Like most legal reference works, it is not available in general book stores or from Amazon.  You can find it at a law book store, or call the publisher, which is located in Charlottesville, VA.

AMERICANS AND THEIR FORESTS:  A Historical Geography
by Michael Williams
Cambridge Univ. Press,  1992, paperback, 599 pages
List: $30.95.  Amazon: $30.95. 
       This book is a fact-packed history that starts with the state of the American forest pre-European settlement and continues up to 1920.  A 30-page epilogue brings things up to date.  It is not for the dilettante, but for anyone who wants to understand how things really were, it is a treasure trove, To take just one example:  In PROPERTY MATTERS, at a couple of points I mention the length of time it took for a pioneer to clear a farm.  This information comes from Williams, but he gives not just a number, but a series of estimates from various sources about clearing, stumping, cording, the relative merits of cutting the trees versus girdling them, and the economic and human consequences of all these facts.  Similarly, his explanations of the economics of the logging industry at various times and places are unparalleled.
       It is a book on the history of forests as an economic resource and on lumbering as an industry, not on forests as an environmental issue.
       In my future reading in American history, any book on the period before 1900 that does not include Williams in its bibliography will drop several notches in my estimate of its reliability about any issue involving forests or logging.  In fact, if these issues are important to the book, I will not bother to read it, on the grounds that it can't be any good if it does not use Williams.

IN A DARK WOOD: The Fight Over Forests and the Rising Tyranny of Ecology
by Alston Chase
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1995, hard cover, 535 pages
List: $29.95.  Amazon: $26.96.   
      This book covers the current controversy over logging in the Pacific Northwest.  It has three themes, each of which is valuable in its own way.  The most interesting to me is its clear analysis of the conflicts over ideas about forests as ecosystems, the distressing over-simplifications that led to the Endangered Species Act, and the conversion of environmentalism into an odd kind of pantheism.  A second story is considerable detail about the history and evolution of the activist movement. A third is the story of the loggers and logging communities.
       All three parts of the book are interesting.  I think the first, the analysis of theories about the forest and the problems of the ESA, is particularly excellent.  Chase himself is a lover of nature who lives in the territory that he is writing about, unlike many ignorant urbanites.  He is particularly critical of the "do nothing" school of environmental management, which assumes that Nature always knows best and that landscapes, left alone, will arrives at some sort of perfect homeostasis.
     You might also want to get an earlier book that explores these issues in a particular context: PLAYING GOD IN YELLOWSTONE: The Destruction of America's First National Park
Harvest, hard cover - 1986, paperback - 1987, 464 pages.  
List: $14.00.  Amazon:  $12.60.    

FOREST DREAMS, FOREST NIGHTMARES: The Paradox of Old Growth in the Inland West
by Nancy Langston
Univ. of Washington Press, hard cover - 1995,  paper back - 1996, 368 pages
List: $16.95.  Amazon: $15.26.   
      A fine work on forests and forest management, told in terms of the Blue Mountains in Oregon.  It drives home the difficulty of the issues, and illuminates current controversies over, for example, the role of fire.  Throughout, it remains well-written and accessible, and quite even-handed in its treatment of warring parties. 

NOAH'S CHOICE: The Future of Endangered Species
by Charles C. Mann & Mark L. Plummer,
Knopf, 1995, hard cover, 302 pages
List: $29.95.  Amazon: $26.96.
        If there is a better book on the provisions, background, workings, and problems of the Endangered Species Act, I have not seen it.  First-rate intellectually, and readable as well.  It is wise to pair it with Budiansky, who puts in some extra analytic information.

IN A DARK WOOD
by Alston Chase
      See the description under FORESTS.

NATURE'S KEEPERS
by Stephen Budiansky
      See the description under ECOSYSTEMS.

NATURE'S KEEPERS: The New Science of Nature Management
by Stephen Budiansky
Free Press, hard cover - 1995, 310 pages
List: $25.00, Amazon: $22.50.    
      "Ecosystems" is the new buzzword of the envirinmental movement.  Ususally, the term is left vague, since the primary goal of those flinging it about is to oppose some use of land, and charging that the use would "interfere with the ecosystem" is handy.  Budiansky looks at the issues squarely and rigorously, recording both the victories and disasters of the effort to manage nature.

THE PUBLIC LANDS: Studies in the History of the Public Domain
by Vernon Carstensen (ed.)
Univ. of Wisconsin Press, hard cover - 1962, paperback - 1968, 522 pages
List:  $13.95, Amazon: $13.95.  
      This work collects a series of articles on the settlement of the West that appeared in various scholarly journals between 1905 and 1960.  Like Michael Williams' book, it is not for the dilettante, but if it is facts you thirst for, this is for you.  For example, have you ever wondered how much it cost to put together a farm during the 19th century?  Now you can know.  And you will also learn that it cost much more to fence the land than to buy it.  Are you curious to learn the true story on the land grants to build the railroads -- wise policy or total corruption?  Now you can read 50 pages arguing every side of the question.  Want to know the details of the Homestead Act and the disposition of the public lands?  Here you are.

PUBLIC LANDS AND PRIVATE RIGHTS: The Failure of Scientific Management
by Robert H. Nelson
Rowman & Littlefield.  Paper - 1995.  
List: $27.95.  Amazon: $27.95.
      Nelson is Professor of Economics who spent some years in the Department of the Interior grappling with the realities of managing the public domain. This book presents a series of essays on these issues that draw on both his economic expertise and practical knowledge.  The books are packed with useful information and insight.  Nelson is pessimistic about achieving anything through "better management," "better people," or any of the other usual bromides and strongly favors the use of property rights in the West.  I could say that he agrees with me, but that is not how the chain runs -- my views on these topics are based largely on Nelson's work.

WAR ON THE WEST: Government Tyranny on America's Great Frontier
by William Perry Pendley
Regnery, hard cover - 1995, 312 pages
List: $24.95. Amazon:  $22.46.
      Pendley is a lawyer who has participated in many of the battles in the West over the past few years, and he is an able defender of the case made by the westerners to continue their long-time use of the public lands.  He also has some useful chapters on grass roots organizing.

THIS LAND IS OUR LAND: How To End the War on Private Property
by Richard Pombo & Joseph Farah
St. Martins, hard cover - 1996, 225 pages
List: $22.95.  Amazon: $20.66.     
      Pombo is a California congressman, and another defender of the rights of the people of the West.  His book summarizes the current areas of controversy, and includes enough horror stories to keep anyone's blood aboil.  He also has some interesting observations on environmentalism as big business, on the press, and on the "eco-federal" coalition.

4-WHEEL FREEDOM: The Art of Off-Road Driving
by Brad DeLong
Paladin Press, paperback - 1996
List: $25.00.  Amazon:  $22.50.  Direct order: 1-800-4X4-ROAD (494-7623).
      An amazing number of people are buying four-wheel drive vehicles with which they can escape into the back country. This is often the public domain, especially in the West.  One purpose of this book is to teach these buyers how to survive, since a Sport Ute is different from a regular car, even on the highway, and driving over rough tracks is very different from traveling on a road.  Another purpose, equally important, is to teach drivers how to avoid damaging the land, how to Tread Lightly.  A point of the book is that maintaining peace among the multiple users of the public lands depends on their respecting each other and the environment.

A LICENSE TO STEAL: The Forfeiture of Property
by Leonard W. Levy
Univ. of North Carolina Press, hard cover - 1996, 272 pages
List: $29.95.  Amazon: $26.96.
      Considering how important the topic has become, relatively little has been written on forfeiture.  This is a good brief analysis of the topic, explaining the origins and current practice, and telling you how some of the more outrageous doctrines arose.  It contains no numbers on the scope of the phenomenon, though.

PRISONER'S DILEMNA: John Von Neumann, Game Theory and the Puzzle of the Bomb
by William Poundstone,
Anchor, hard cover - 1992, paperback - 1993, 294 pages
List:  $14.00.  Amazon:  $12.60. 
      This is half a biography of the great mathemetician and half a primer on game theory.  The part on Von Neumann is interesting enough for those with a taste for scientific biography, but it will not be the focus for any of us involved in property rights and politics.  For us, the invaluable part of the book is the primer on game theory.  Poundstone explains the basic concepts and variations in clear language, gives the reader a sense of the complexities without drowning him, and avoids getting bogged down in the esoterica.  
      Many current failings of the political system are game theory problems, and reading this book changes fundamentally the way one thinks about contemporary affairs.

THE EVOLUTION OF COOPERATION
by Robert A. Axelrod
HarperCollins, hard cover - 1984, paperback - 1985, 241 pages
List: $17.00.   Amazon: $17.00.
      Another game theory classic, this examines how cooperation does indeed evolve over time, despite the short-term incentives for selfish behavior. In laboratory trials, the basic mechanism of cooperation turns out to be a strategy called "Tit-for-Tat," in which participants in repeated games of Prisoner's Dilemma simply do to their competitor/co-player/participant whatever that competitor/co-player/participant did to them in the last round.
      Axelrod does not provide a good basic grounding in the elements of Prisoner's Dilemma. Thus it is advisable to read Poundstone first.

THE ANATOMY OF REVOLUTION
by Crane Brinton
Random House, hard cover - ?, paperback - 1966
List: $8.00.  Amazon: $7.20.    
     A seminal study by a famous historian.  Brinton analyzes the causes of the English, French, Russian, and American Revolutions.  The book has many striking insights, including its focus on the importance of political legitimacy.  In most revolutions the rulers are not overthrown by force.  They succumb because people simply stop supporting them, and they become unable to weather even a mild crisis.