The War Over Rent is one part gripping, under-told history, one part recipe for agitation. The victory of what historians term the 'Irish Land War' is breathtaking in its implications. In the 19th century, Irish peasants took on the British Empire and won, wresting stolen land back from absentee landlords, and reshaping the world around them. In terms of access to police, the state, capital, land, or courts - the traditional implements of power - Irish activists garnered inconceivable wins from rent control to the wholesale transfer of land from rich to poor. How did they do it? And is the success of the Land War repeatable today? With clear echoes in our own times of wealth disparity and housing crises around the word, this surprising and magnificent Irish history can teach us how to fairly redistribute land without killing our landlords today.
