"The Living Wall - The massive hedge planted to tax salt in India" uncovers one of the most colossal and forgotten structures in human history: The Great Hedge of India. In the mid-19th century, the British colonial administration grew a barrier of thorny bushes and trees that stretched for over 2,500 miles-longer than the Great Wall of China-across the heart of India.Historian Silas Flint explains the purpose of this botanical monster: greed. It was the physical enforcement of the "Inland Customs Line," designed solely to prevent the smuggling of untaxed salt. The book describes the army of...