To Have and To Hold: The Meaning of Ownership in the United States

(Hardback)

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Dr. Neala Schleuning provides a wide-ranging interdisciplinary exploration of the idea of ownership. She focuses primarily on the transition in modes and meaning of ownership since the emergence of the Industrial Revolution. Her primary argument is that the experience of ownership has been one of enclosure, which in turn conflicts with the goals of democratic society. Topics include land ownership, private property in a capitalist society, and the changing nature of ownership in a consumer society. Psychological, political, and social expressions of owning are explored, including the relationship between objects and social status, the nature of human desire and its manipulation, ownership and freedom, and the making of community. Special emphasis is placed on the relationship between the idea of ownership and the control and manipulation of women. For millenia the idea of ownership was closely tied to the land and to the creative work of individuals living in community with others. The making and sharing of objects between people lies at the core of social and political activity that has changed little over time. In the 17th century, however, ownership began to be transformed from a collective to an individual activity, and from a shared activity to one of exclusion and accumulation. In the late 19th century, ideas of owning shifted again, from the enclosure of land and capital to the personal accumulation of consumer goods. Based primarily on research in Western culture and the experience of the United States, Dr. Schleuning's book explores the deep social, political, economic, and personal forces shaping and changing the human relationship with the natural and made worlds. This work is important reading for political economists, political scientists, and others concerned with philosophical issues involving property.

Reviews

Her book is a fresh re-interpretation of a topic familiar to anarchists....By summing up the history of how we come to have and to hold in the United States. Dr. Schleuning provides an invaluable resource, a comparative analysis....She challenges every person to reclaim sovereignty over our own labor, our bodies, and what are called "our" governments.-Social Anarchism
The book is extraordianryily revealing and interesting. The connections made among seemingly unrelated social, economic, and historical phenomena are breathtaking....Upper-level college readers beyond will find much to ponder in these pages.-Perspectives on Political Science
This book....is interdisciplinary, combing historical research, sociology, political theory, economics, feminist thought, and anthropolgy to create a powerful indictment of the enshrinement of private property, taken ti its apogee in the United States....This material is woven together to form a coherent, powerful critique of private property. As a source book on this aspect of U.S. history alone, it is invaluable....Schleuning has fashioned a substantial contribution to the progessive corpus. In so doing she has resurrected important issues of an ethical, aesthetic, moral, and spiritual nature to which sympathetic thinkers and activists would do well to attend.-Review of Radical Political Economics
"Her book is a fresh re-interpretation of a topic familiar to anarchists....By summing up the history of how we come to have and to hold in the United States. Dr. Schleuning provides an invaluable resource, a comparative analysis....She challenges every person to reclaim sovereignty over our own labor, our bodies, and what are called "our" governments."-Social Anarchism
"The book is extraordianryily revealing and interesting. The connections made among seemingly unrelated social, economic, and historical phenomena are breathtaking....Upper-level college readers beyond will find much to ponder in these pages."-Perspectives on Political Science
"This book....is interdisciplinary, combing historical research, sociology, political theory, economics, feminist thought, and anthropolgy to create a powerful indictment of the enshrinement of private property, taken ti its apogee in the United States....This material is woven together to form a coherent, powerful critique of private property. As a source book on this aspect of U.S. history alone, it is invaluable....Schleuning has fashioned a substantial contribution to the progessive corpus. In so doing she has resurrected important issues of an ethical, aesthetic, moral, and spiritual nature to which sympathetic thinkers and activists would do well to attend."-Review of Radical Political Economics

Author Bio

NEALA SCHLEUNING, American Studies, is a member of the National Coalition of Independent Scholars. Among her earlier publications are Women, Community and the Hormel Strike of 1985-86 and Idle Hands and Empty Hearts: Work and Freedom in the United States.