{"podcast":{"title":"New Books in Law","slug":"new-books-in-law-435148","podcast_index_feed_id":435148,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LIT9194668674","website_url":"https://newbooksnetwork.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/ed004316-efde-11e8-9046-ff9798033c68/image/ae1a67b1e26a70ce7206b645623e48a3.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"New Books Network","episode_count":1864,"summary":"This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law","last_synced_at":"2026-06-15T20:20:35.462151+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-law-435148"},"episode":{"title":"James Q. Whitman, \"Masters of Slaves to Lords of Lands: The Transformation of Ownership in the Western World\" (Cambridge UP, 2025)","slug":"james-q-whitman-masters-of-slaves-to-lords-of-lands-the-transformation-of-ownership-in-the-western-world-cambridge-up-2025","published_at":"2026-05-04T08:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-law-435148/james-q-whitman-masters-of-slaves-to-lords-of-lands-the-transformation-of-ownership-in-the-western-world-cambridge-up-2025","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-law-435148","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK4170861835.mp3?updated=1777832570","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK4170861835.mp3?updated=1777832570","summary":"Today we think of land as the paradigmatic example of property, while in the past, the paradigmatic example was often a slave. In this seminal work, James Q. Whitman asserts that there is no natural form of ownership. Whitman dives deep into the long Western history of this transformation in the legal imagination – the transformation from the ownership of humans and other living creatures to the ownership of land. This change extended over many centuries, coming to fruition only on the threshold of the modern era. It brought with it profound changes, not only in the way we understand ownership but also in the way we understand the state. Its most dramatic consequence arrived in the nineteenth century, with the final disappearance of the lawful private ownership of humans, which had been taken for granted for thousands of years. James Q. Whitman is the Ford Foundation Professor of Comparative and Foreign Law at Yale Law School. He earned his B.A. and J.D. from Yale University and Law School and also holds an M.A. in European History from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Intellectual History from the University of Chicago. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/a48266/videos Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law","meta_description":"Today we think of land as the paradigmatic example of property, while in the past, the paradigmatic example was often a slave. In this seminal work, Jame…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3261,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-law-435148/episodes/james-q-whitman-masters-of-slaves-to-lords-of-lands-the-transformation-of-ownership-in-the-western-world-cambridge-up-2025/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-law-435148/james-q-whitman-masters-of-slaves-to-lords-of-lands-the-transformation-of-ownership-in-the-western-world-cambridge-up-2025.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}