Books, Arts & Manners: Property, Properly Understood

The Noblest Triumph: Property and Prosperity through the Ages, by Tom Bethell (St. Martin’s, 378 pp., $29.95)

DURING his trip to China, President Clinton gave a speech at Peking University in which he declared that “certain rights are universal.” He explained that “everywhere, people aspire to be treated with dignity, to give voice to their opinions, to choose their own leaders, to associate with whom they wish, to worship how, when, and where they want.”