Dobbz - Nine-tenths of the law: property and resistance in the United States

Considering how many people all over the world have been involved in squatting vacant properties, it is amazing to me that there are so few good books on the subject. Hannah Dobbzs book is a welcome addition. She deals with a wide range of approaches from the Native American Seizure of Alcatraz Island, to New York Squatters and Homesteaders of the 1980s, to the housing actions led by Occupy Wall Street today. She does not simply advocate but asks important philosophical questions about these tendencies. With Americas foreclosure crisis generating a landscape full of empty houses, one can see the rise of an even bigger squatters movement on the horizon. To those engaged in such activity, and those considering it, this book will be a valuable resource. Seth Tobocman , author of Understanding the Crash and Disaster and Resistance

Millions of foreclosed homes and abandoned buildings on one hand; millions of Americans desperate for decent shelter on the other. Hannah Dobbz makes the necessary addition of resources and needs in a brilliant history of squatting in the USA. Mike Davis , author of Planet of Slums

This is the thinking persons guidebook to urban and suburban squatting. Hannah Dobbzs book is about property in America, this history created all the time. This book lays it all out, from the days when George Washington was an illegal land speculator, property rights were entwined with genocide, and the Great Proprietors always won, to the resourceful new movements that have recently emerged to help people take empty houses during the foreclosure age. Using her own life, recent news stories, and generations of scholarly work, Dobbz waltzes through the bizarreries of the U.S. property system, from the iron logic of property speculation to the madness of arson for profit.

Her book tells the hidden histories we badly need to know, from lone wolf opportunists to political activists acting selflessly to house others. We read about the big city storiesfrom New York, Philadelphia, San Franciscoand navigate the entanglements of the foreclosure crisis, how people remain homeless as homes remain peopleless in the doomed suburbs of America. Rent-free living is no bed of roses, as squatters become the new villains for U.S. media, even as they face landlords setting fires and thugs doing evictions for hire. Learn why most of them dont care to own.

Dobbz book does more than just tell the story of squatting in the USAalthough that alone makes it a vital read. For those who arent quite ready for off-the-grid outlaw living, Dobbz explains land trusts and co-op ownership, along with the romance (and grime) of collective living. If youre thinking of squattingor just want to know more about legal theory of property and home ownershipthis book is for you. Alan W. Moore , author of Art Gangs: Protest and Counterculture in New York City

Nin e -Tenths of the L aw

P r o perty and Resistance in the United States

by Hannah Dobbz