James C. Scott
Autor(a) de Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
About the Author
James C. Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science and codirector of the Agrarian Studies Program at Vale University. His previous books include Domination and the Arts of Resistance, Seeing Like a State, and The Art of Not Being Governed.
Image credit: Drawing of James C. Scott by Karen Eliot.
Obras de James C. Scott
Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (1998) 1,415 cópias
The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (2009) — Autor — 482 cópias
Two Cheers for Anarchism: Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity, and Meaningful Work and Play (2012) 269 cópias
Decoding subaltern politics : ideology, disguise, and resistance in agrarian politics (2012) 8 cópias
How traditional rural patrons lose legitimacy (LTC reprint) 1 exemplar(es)
Associated Works
Etiquetado
Conhecimento Comum
- Nome padrão
- Scott, James C.
- Nome de batismo
- Scott, James Campbell
- Data de nascimento
- 1936-12-02
- Sexo
- male
- Nacionalidade
- USA
- Locais de residência
- Durham, Connecticut, USA
- Educação
- Williams College (BA)
Yale University (PhD|Political Science|1967) - Ocupação
- political scientist
anthropologist
university professor - Organizações
- Yale University
- Premiações
- John Guggenheim Fellowship
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
National Science Foundation Fellowship
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Membros
Resenhas
Listas
Prêmios
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Estatísticas
- Obras
- 14
- Also by
- 1
- Membros
- 3,783
- Popularidade
- #6,697
- Avaliação
- 4.1
- Resenhas
- 60
- ISBNs
- 78
- Idiomas
- 8
- Favorito
- 5
The first few chapters of the book discuss how agriculture, ecology, war and slavery on the one hand facilitated early state formation, but on the other hand were so precarious that the balance could (and did) often turn to state disintegration as well. There was no linear development from hunting and gathering to agriculture and state formation, but complex back-and forth oscillation with lots of human traffic going in all directions for several millenia. These points are well taken.
The later chapters were in my opinion more interesting. The author argues that the historical record contains a state-centered bias because (p.214) "the self-documenting court center offered convenient one-stop shopping for historians and archaeologists". This bias should not lead us to think that early states offered a better life to its citizens than smaller communities, or that the "collapse" of a state necessarily had, in the long term, negative consequences. The population just dispersed, and they did not leave a written record. Our traditional power- and text-centered historical sequences of "civilization" (Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, Maya...) are quite myopic. Most of humanity lived in less powerful societies without written state records.
I think the book could have been structured a bit better, and the argument in the later chapters could have been extended in more detail almost up to modern history (as the author does very briefly at the end). But the title of this book is appropriate and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to think about human history from a different perspective.… (mais)