The Art of Not Being Governed:
An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia

by James C. Scott

Publisher: Yale University Press (September 30, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0300152280
ISBN-13: 978-0300152289
Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds

Information:

courtesy Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse
by v/a

We've fallen a little behind on our reading here, so we don't have detailed comments on any of these yet, other than that they all look totally fantastic and the first three things we're going to get to as soon as we make it through this weekend's Radical Bookfair Pavilion.....

First up is James C. Scott's The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Southeast Asia. Now we were under the impression, what with their summary dismissal of our favorite anarchist anthropologist, David Graeber, that Yale University wasn't the best place to explore critiques of the state. So we were more than a little surprised to see this book coming out, from Yale professor James Scott, who specializes in the historical sociology of agriculture in Asia. The thesis of this new book, echoing Pierre Clastres claims about anarchy in the Amazon, is that we can point to significant populations of the world that have no interest in being governed by a state --- in this case, "Zomia", Scott's neologistic designation of Europe-sized chunk of uplands Southeast Asia, which Scott understands a two-thousand year old autonomous zone fighting off state formation and state encroachment.