Book Review & Giveaway: Who Owns The World by Kevin Cahill

Who owns the world? Do you know? Do you know who owns the country or the state or province in which you reside? Do you know how much of the land is forest land, farmland or urban land? These are just some of the questions that Kevin Cahill set out to answer in his book  Who Owns The World: The Surprising Truth About Every Piece of Land on the Planet.  Cahill examines landownership for every country down to the state/province level. The author dedicates a few chapters on the historic division of the world through ownership and geography and the remainder of the book contains surprising information.  You'll learn:

• The largest landowners in America are the Federal government and Ted Turner.
• 80% of the American population is crammed into urban areas.
• Queen Elizabeth II owns 1/6 of the entire land surface on Earth

So how much land are talking about in the world? Well there's 197 countries and 33,558,400,010 acres of land on earth.  You'll gloss over a few facts that are seemingly overreported by news media. Such as:

• The top county in America with the highest number of millionaire residents is Los Angeles County. 
• Bill Gates III, Chairman of Mircrosoft, is one of the top 5 richest men in the world.
• When it comes to the top 4 largest organized religions, the Catholic Church is the largest landowner with presence in more than 190 countries.

But I urge to treat those known facts as reassurrance of your intelligence and keep reading. Despite it's primary use as a reference book, Cahill argues that the best and fastest way to overcome poverty is to grant each individual on earth one small slice of urban land for a home or an acrea or two of rural land. He asserts that landownership is a game of too few players that needs to be rectified. 

Nevertheless, in the wake of the Haiti Earthquake, I couldn't resist pulling this book off the shelf to see what I could find. I really wanted to know who owns the land that consistently encounters mother nature's wrath.
There it was in Chapter 4 - The Land of the Americas (Non-USA).  Haiti's constitution of 1987 recognizes and guarantees private property with total acreage of 6,856,960.  So, you can aspire to own land but poverty often restricts it leaving landownership to the very rich.

This book is a great reference of interest. Most of the data is based on the author's prior research into government reports such as the U.S. Census.  This is an edited and abridged version of Who Owns The World: the Hidden Facts Behind Landownership by Kevin Cahill, which was published in 2006. The extensive data in the original would overwhelm the average reader so the abridged version is much more appealling and it leaves the door open for inquiring minds. An extension of this book is available online.

With its relevance to contemporary issues and culture, WHO OWNS THE WORLD makes for fascinating reading. Both entertaining and educational, it provides cocktail party conversation for years to come and is guaranteed to change the way you view the U.S. and the world.

Take the Quiz.  You may be interested to know Why Cahill Wrote This Book? Check it out.

*******************GIVEAWAY DETAILS (3 copies available)
Many thanks to our friends at Hachette Book Group for sponsoring this giveaway.

1) To enter, name your residential state/province and who you think owns most of it!
2) Please leave your email address just in case you win.
3) Note that the publisher does not ship to PO Boxes.
4) Entries are limited to residents of US and Canada.
5) Giveaway ends January 31th.