The model was originated in the United States by Ralph Borsodi in the 1930s and later formalized and refined by Robert Swann, Simon Gottschalk, Erick S. Hansch, and Edward Webster in a seminal book published in 1972, entitled "The Community Land Trust: A Guide to a New Model for Land Tenure in America." Borsodi, Swann, and their colleagues drew upon earlier examples of planned communities on leased land including the garden city movement in the United Kingdom, single tax communities inspired by Henry George in the USA, Gramdan villages in India, and moshav communities on lands owned by the Jewish National Fund in Israel. New Communities, Inc., the prototype for the modern-day community land trust, was formed in 1969 near Albany, Georgia, by local leaders of the Civil Rights Movement who were seeking a new way to achieve secure access to land for African American families.