In Property and Dispossession, Allan Greer offers a far-reaching reassessment of the ideas of land and ownership that came to the New World from Europe, and how they interacted with Indigenous notions of property. Breaking down the binary distinctions of European and Indigenous concepts of land entitlement, Greer unravels the different notions that informed Europe's colonial projects as well as their Native counterparts. Discounting the Epilogue, Greer's study spans two sections. The first of these sections, which is also the strongest, is entitled “Three Zones of Colonization” and offers a synthesis of the property designs of the different colonial and indigenous powers in the early modern period. This section is strongest in its analysis of how European precedents of land tenure were adapted and often discarded in North America.

Greer first turns his attention towards Indigenous forms of property, and the different formations of it that existed across Native American societies in the early contact period. These are placed into three broad categories: a state society, a semisedentary society, and the hunter-gatherer communities. What is most compelling here, beyond Greer's refreshingly nuanced look at Indigenous conceptions of ownership, is a persuasive argument on non-state societies not being ignorant of private ownership. Greer contends that the “trap lines, hunting areas and the game animals” (54) of the Innu reveal a unique understanding of property ownership, yet this did not fit into the European idea of property.

The experiences of early contact, Greer argues, were not totally one-sided in favour of the European intruders. Even the Conquistadors “took what they wanted, but title to land was not their target” (66), essentially replacing Moctezuma with the Spanish Empire as the binding force in Central America. Indeed, the tribute system of New Spain made sure “that the ‘poor Indians’ were not exploited excessively” by allowing Natives to appeal their claims to property. However, corrupt Spanish ranchers and officials often undercut the practical application of this system.

The sprawling, yet sparsely colonized, lands of New France present a similar evolution. Greer breaks down the historiographic generalization of the “seigneurial system” and emphasizes how settlers and the Native population of New France developed their own version of the French feudal system, which was eroded by the increased influx of settlers. Crucially, the Jesuits who were initially the protectors of Native property eventually acquiesced Native lands to these settlers. The disparity between the edicts of the colonial governments and the settler communities is a key theme of Greer's study.

The English colonial experience took a different course, viewing the lands of North America as their own and, as time went on, that “a colony is a space for colonists” (198). The English approach to dispossession was multifaceted, such as through dubious Indian deeds, the encroachment of cattle and, in a similar manner to the Jesuits of New France, through the “Praying Indians” project in New England. As Greer argues in the second part of the study, “Aspects of Property Formation,” allocated lands for Christian Indians in the colonial world were precursors to the reservation system. This section highlights that the creation of these enclosures and boundaries, such as through settler farmland, created the “process of property formation in colonial North America” (242), and the dispossession of Native peoples. This was underpinned through the Lockean notion that Europeans invariably improved the land. Eventually, colonial surveyors formalized these notions, forcing the Indigenous peoples to see land in the same precisely bounded ways the settlers did.

The book ends by detailing the failed attempts by European states to take closer control of their colonial possessions, exposing the fundamental differences between the Old World and New World ideas of property. Through the Age of Revolutions, colonial ideas of property being a granted privilege were replaced with the notion that rights to property represented a sacred right, a right that Native peoples did not have. This ideal, as Greer concludes, set the course for Indian policy up to the present day.

Utilizing a wide evidential base, and a clear grasp of both the theoretical and practical implications of these principles of property, Greer's comparative approach makes for an invaluable addition to the literature on settler colonialism. Inevitable problems arise with such a far-reaching study, lacking detail in some areas that may disappoint experts of a particular region. For instance, the role of Maroons in New Spain who were granted land by colonial authorities is not mentioned and surely would have bolstered his sections on this region. This aside, Property and Dispossession offers a compelling study of the making of North America.