One of the most enduring dreams is of a Utopian society in which all possessions are held in common ownership, and there is never a quarrel over "mine" and "thine". As Professor Pipes argues in this book, such a dream has never been translated into reality in the secular world, despite the best efforts of socialist and communist ideologues.
After establishing what we mean by "property", what the attitude to it has been of Western philosophers, theologians and political theorists, and reviewing the development of property as an institution, from primitive societies through Greece, Rome and the medieval states to modern Europe, the author pursues his argument that private ownership of the means of creating wealth is the only effective way of setting limits to state authority. He does so by tracing the different historic evolution of Britain and Russia.
The development of his argument, based step by step on the most coherent and luminous study of political, legal and social precedents, brings him to conclude that the revolutionary cry of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity is intrinsically unrealisable because equality in terms of ownership is in diametric opposition to individual liberty.
