So this book caught me by surprise and then some - I had thought this was relevant to western civilisation, or at the very least the USA in general. But what the book is actually about is governing the far western US states from Washington to New Mexico, and a specific kind of governance at that.
The early chapters mostly deal in American frontier history, which (though fascinating) isn't what I came to the book for, and I thumbed through quickly. The later chapters actually go into the politics and governance of national parks, state and county commons, and various other land policy. It's somewhat strange to see the history of eminent domain in the US.
This does lead me to think about the land policy in places like Hong Kong, though most of the information in the book is relevant only up to the 1970s. I think my next week's reading material will be about Hong Kong specifically. As much fun as I had reading the book, it just didn't have enough applicable skills or knowledge in my opinion.
4/10