Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (Veritas Paperbacks)
"One of the most profound and illuminating studies of this century to have been published in recent decades."--John Gray, New York Times Book Review "A powerful, and in many [ways] insightful, explanation as to why grandiose programs of social reform, not to mention revolution, so often end in tragedy. . . . An important critique of visionary state planning."--Robert Heilbroner, Lingua Franca Hailed as "a magisterial critique of top-down social planning" by the New York Times, this essential work analyzes disasters from Russia to Tanzania to uncover why states so often fail--sometimes catastrophically--in grand efforts to engineer their society or their environment, and uncovers the conditions common to all such planning disasters. "Beautifully written, this book calls into sharp relief the nature of the world we now inhabit."--New Yorker "A tour de force."--Charles Tilly, Columbia University The Institution for Social and Policy Studies
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Community Reviews
Part 1. State Projects of Legibility and Simplification 9
Chapter 1. Nature and Space 1 1
3,5/10
This is terrible writing. It's stuff you see in dry philosophical articles. This is not the writing or argument style you use for long books. No matter how much I agree with his main claims I can't get over how badly they are presented.
I do think the main points are good, but it's nothing new. You can find critique of top-down management in many much more simple books. So why read a chapter that's 5 times harder to understand than it needs to be? No one speaks this way, no regular person writes this way. This is academic social science writing made to make the writer seem extra clever.
Chapter 2. Cities, People, and Language 53
4/10
Still getting no use out of this book. I doubt it will get better. It's just terribly written even though there are a lot of curious small factoids in the book some readers may enjoy.
I think the surnames part was fine. It's still unfocused and instead of presenting an argument it kinda just focuses on small facts about the history of surnames. It's fine as a short intro on the topic though. But if you are not ready to memorize facts this will be a weird read.
I'll stop reading this audiobook for now. I hate this kind of writing style. It's just not a style that fits my brain. I read this and don't get much of it as you constantly need to untangle words and sentences. I may return to it, but right now I need some proper reading material to get motivated. We'll see…
The book itself may get much better later on so don't take my review seriously. I'm just not patient enough to hope for something more after these 2 hours of the audiobook.
Part 2. Transforming Visions 85
Chapter 3. Authoritarian High Modernism 87
0/10
Chapter 4. The High-Modernist City: An Experiment and a Critique 103
0/10
Chapter 5. The Revolutionary Party: A Plan and a Diagnosis 147
0/10
Part 3. The Social Engineering of Rural Settlement and Production 18 1
Chapter 6. Soviet Collectivization, Capitalist Dreams 193
0/10
Chapter 7. Compulsory Villagization in Tanzania: Aesthetics and Miniaturization 223
0/10
Chapter 8. Taming Nature: An Agriculture of Legibility and Simplicity 262
0/10
Part 4. The Missing Link 307
Chapter 9. Thin Simplifications and Practical Knowledge: Metis 309
0/10
Chapter 10. Conclusion 342
0/10
Chapter 1. Nature and Space 1 1
3,5/10
This is terrible writing. It's stuff you see in dry philosophical articles. This is not the writing or argument style you use for long books. No matter how much I agree with his main claims I can't get over how badly they are presented.
I do think the main points are good, but it's nothing new. You can find critique of top-down management in many much more simple books. So why read a chapter that's 5 times harder to understand than it needs to be? No one speaks this way, no regular person writes this way. This is academic social science writing made to make the writer seem extra clever.
Chapter 2. Cities, People, and Language 53
4/10
Still getting no use out of this book. I doubt it will get better. It's just terribly written even though there are a lot of curious small factoids in the book some readers may enjoy.
I think the surnames part was fine. It's still unfocused and instead of presenting an argument it kinda just focuses on small facts about the history of surnames. It's fine as a short intro on the topic though. But if you are not ready to memorize facts this will be a weird read.
I'll stop reading this audiobook for now. I hate this kind of writing style. It's just not a style that fits my brain. I read this and don't get much of it as you constantly need to untangle words and sentences. I may return to it, but right now I need some proper reading material to get motivated. We'll see…
The book itself may get much better later on so don't take my review seriously. I'm just not patient enough to hope for something more after these 2 hours of the audiobook.
Part 2. Transforming Visions 85
Chapter 3. Authoritarian High Modernism 87
0/10
Chapter 4. The High-Modernist City: An Experiment and a Critique 103
0/10
Chapter 5. The Revolutionary Party: A Plan and a Diagnosis 147
0/10
Part 3. The Social Engineering of Rural Settlement and Production 18 1
Chapter 6. Soviet Collectivization, Capitalist Dreams 193
0/10
Chapter 7. Compulsory Villagization in Tanzania: Aesthetics and Miniaturization 223
0/10
Chapter 8. Taming Nature: An Agriculture of Legibility and Simplicity 262
0/10
Part 4. The Missing Link 307
Chapter 9. Thin Simplifications and Practical Knowledge: Metis 309
0/10
Chapter 10. Conclusion 342
0/10
