Books by James C Scott
“I love Scott, he’s one of my favourite authors.” Read more...
The best books on Minority Survival in China
James Palmer, Foreign Correspondent
“It’s a story about state simplification. States impose order on the places and people they’re trying to rule, with an aim of trying to control them more effectively. The extreme versions are the high modernism of the 1950s or the Soviet planning regime, but those are just the big obvious ones. More interesting, in a way, are earlier ways in which all modern states emerged and imposed themselves on messy traditional practices, mostly in order to be able to control and tax the people…One example he gives is standardized weights and measures. He spent a lot of time in Malaysia, where if you ask somebody how far it is to the next village, they will tell you that it’s three rice cookings. Everybody knows how long it takes rice to cook, and how long it takes to walk there is more useful for you than knowing that it’s ten kilometers. Ten kilometers on the flat is very different from ten kilometers in the mountains. But the state’s not very satisfied with those sorts of weights and measures and distance indicators. They want some standard measures on the basis of which they can tax people.” Read more...
The Best Political Science Books
Robert E. Goodin, Political Scientist
Interviews where books by James C Scott were recommended
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1
The American Voter
by Angus Campbell et al. -
2
The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups
by Mancur Olson -
3
Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis
by Graham Allison & Philip Zelikow -
4
Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
by James C Scott -
5
Deliberation Naturalized: Improving Real Existing Deliberative Democracy
by Ana Tanasoca
The Best Political Science Books, recommended by Robert E. Goodin
The Best Political Science Books, recommended by Robert E. Goodin
Emerging in the middle of the last century, political science combines data and theory to help us understand the political world. Professor Robert E. Goodin, editor of The Oxford Handbook of Political Science and co-editor of The British Journal of Political Science, introduces five seminal works from major sub-disciplines. His choices are accessible starting points that open up new ways of thinking: from big data to deep case studies, these are five books that will help you to make sense of the world – and to change it.
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1
The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution
by Francis Fukuyama -
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Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
by James C Scott -
3
The Nature and Growth of Modern Mathematics
by Edna Ernestine Kramer -
4
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams -
5
Finite and Infinite Games
by James Carse
The best books on How the World Works, recommended by Venkatesh Rao
The best books on How the World Works, recommended by Venkatesh Rao
Armed with one of the ‘big histories’ currently in vogue, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and a tome about how modern maths came to be, you too can get a grip on how the world works. Tech blogger Venkatesh Rao chooses some good books for those who agree with Socrates that ‘for a human being, the unexamined life is not worth living.’
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Human Impacts on Weather and Climate
by William R Cotton and Roger A Pielke -
2
How Many People Can the Earth Support?
by Joel E Cohen -
3
Seeing like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed
by James C Scott -
4
Energy at the Crossroads
by Vaclav Smil -
5
Why We Disagree About Climate Change
by Mike Hulme
The best books on Climate Change Innovation, recommended by Roger Pielke Jr
The best books on Climate Change Innovation, recommended by Roger Pielke Jr
Environmental studies professor Roger Pielke Jr says innovation and argument is the only way to reverse climate change.
The best books on Failed States, recommended by Clare Lockhart
The director of The Institute for State Effectiveness, Clare Lockhart, questions the role of the state and discusses the effects of failed states on both neighbouring and local populations. She picks the best books on failed states.
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1
The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia
by James C Scott -
2
The Manchu Way: The Eight Banners and Ethnic Identity in Late Imperial China
by Mark C Elliott -
3
Wolf Totem
by Jiang Rong -
4
The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History
by Rian Thum -
5
Forgotten Kingdom: Lijiang and the Naxi People
by Peter Goullart
The best books on Minority Survival in China, recommended by James Palmer
The best books on Minority Survival in China, recommended by James Palmer
China’s minority peoples have shaped the country’s history and its identity. They led its most successful dynasty, the Qing. But nowadays, their role has been reduced to that of tourist spectacle. Beijing-based writer James Palmer picks the best books on China’s ethnic minorities.
