One of the things that makes this nation such a wonderful place to live is our fabulous infrastructure system. We have reliable electricity, running water, sewage, cable TV, safe and reliable airlines, rails and roads to take us anywhere that we want to go. If we find ourselves mired in too much traffic, then we will expand the highway or build an entire new road to make travel easier.
In my career as an eminent domain attorney and a right of way professional, I have taken pride in the very small role that I have played in maintaining and improving our existing infrastructure system. I firmly believe that the right of way industry is a key component to what makes America great. Our system of acquiring real estate for infrastructure is fair, equitable, and is based on the concept of paying “just compensation” for the property rights that we acquire.
What we as right of way professionals do not realize, however, is that every single project comes with a hidden price to humanity. Despite the benefits to greater society, our projects take an often unseen toll on individual human beings. And even though we might know that intellectually, do we really grasp the human impact of our actions on our fellow citizens?
Back in 2019, my good friend Robert Thomas of the Pacific Legal Foundation (and editor of Inverse Condemnation) was teaching a property class at my alma mater, William and Mary Law School. He posted on LinkedIn that one of his upcoming classes would feature a special guest: a gentleman who wrote a rather unconventional book about property rights in the United States. I believe that there was also an open invitation to attend and hear the lecture from that special guest. I was unable to make it up to Williamsburg for that lecture, but I did investigate the book that was being discussed. It looked pretty interesting. I bought it immediately and along with most other books that I purchase, promptly placed it on a shelf unopened.
Fast forward three and a half years when I was looking for something interesting to read and discovered this little book on my shelf. It is called The Habit of Turning the World Upside Down. The author was Howard Mansfield—the gentleman who visited Robert Thomas’ law class in 2019. At that moment I could not remember why I purchased this book, where I got it from, or even how long it had been on my shelf. That did not last long. I took it down and began reading and it completely changed my perspective on my work.
You see, Howard Mansfield‘s book is about the unique relationship that American society has had with real property over the centuries. I had no idea how different we were from other countries and how outright perverse our perspective on real property could be. The book features a series of little known historic stories, none of which I had ever heard. I finished the book very quickly and determined that my perspective as an eminent domain attorney and a right of way professional would be forever changed. The Habit of Turning the World Upside Down is now required reading for anybody who wants to come join our team.
We had an amazing interview with Howard Mansfield on the Infrastructure Junkies podcast. Check out the episode here.
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