Seeing Like a State
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Narrated by:
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Michael Kramer
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By:
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James C. Scott
About this listen
Compulsory ujamaa villages in Tanzania, collectivization in Russia, Le Corbusier's urban planning theory realized in Brasilia, the Great Leap Forward in China, agricultural "modernization" in the Tropics - the twentieth century has been racked by grand utopian schemes that have inadvertently brought death and disruption to millions. Why do well-intentioned plans for improving the human condition go tragically awry?
In this wide-ranging and original audiobook, James C. Scott analyzes failed cases of large-scale authoritarian plans in a variety of fields. Centrally managed social plans misfire, Scott argues, when they impose schematic visions that do violence to complex interdependencies that are not - and cannot - be fully understood. Further, the success of designs for social organization depends upon the recognition that local, practical knowledge is as important as formal, epistemic knowledge. The author builds a persuasive case against "development theory" and imperialistic state planning that disregards the values, desires, and objections of its subjects. He identifies and discusses four conditions common to all planning disasters: administrative ordering of nature and society by the state; a "high-modernist ideology" that places confidence in the ability of science to improve every aspect of human life; a willingness to use authoritarian state power to effect large-scale interventions; and a prostrate civil society that cannot effectively resist such plans.
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Jacques Ellul’s The Technological Society has become a classic in its field, laying the groundwork for all other studies of technology and society that have followed. Ellul offers a penetrating analysis of our technological civilization, showing how technology - which began innocuously enough as a servant of humankind - threatens to overthrow humanity itself in its ongoing creation of an environment that meets its own ends. No conversation about the dangers of technology and its unavoidable effects on society can begin without a careful listening of this book.
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A singular work.
- By Daniel S Hoffman on 06-20-21
By: Jacques Ellul
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The Mystery of Capital
- Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else
- By: Hernando de Soto
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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"The hour of capitalism's greatest triumph," writes Hernando de Soto, "is, in the eyes of four-fifths of humanity, its hour of crisis." In The Mystery of Capital, the world-famous Peruvian economist takes up one of the most pressing questions the world faces today: Why do some countries succeed at capitalism while others fail?
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Good global perspective on Capitalism
- By Nellie boi on 05-29-21
By: Hernando de Soto
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Work
- A Deep History, from the Stone Age to the Age of Robots
- By: James Suzman
- Narrated by: Nicholas Guy Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Work defines who we are. It determines our status and dictates how, where, and with whom we spend most of our time. It mediates our self-worth and molds our values. But are we hardwired to work as hard as we do? Did our Stone Age ancestors also live to work and work to live? And what might a world where work plays a far less important role look like? To answer these questions, James Suzman charts a grand history of "work" from the origins of life on Earth to our ever more automated present, challenging some of our deepest assumptions about who we are.
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if you like Jared Diamond's work, you'll like this
- By Mark on 04-09-22
By: James Suzman
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A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things
- A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet
- By: Raj Patel, Jason W. Moore
- Narrated by: Simon Mattacks
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives: these are the seven things that have made our world and will shape its future. Bringing the latest ecological research together with histories of colonialism, indigenous struggles, slave revolts, and other rebellions and uprisings, Patel and Moore demonstrate that throughout history, crises have always prompted fresh strategies to make the world cheap and safe for capitalism.
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A remarkable exposé & synthesis of the Ponzi scheme that capitalism is and always has been.
- By Scott on 02-10-18
By: Raj Patel, and others
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Nonzero
- The Logic of Human Destiny
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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At the beginning of Nonzero, Robert Wright sets out to "define the arrow of the history of life, from the primordial soup to the World Wide Web." Twenty-two chapters later, after a sweeping and vivid narrative of the human past, he has succeeded and has mounted a powerful challenge to the conventional view that evolution and human history are aimless.
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Non-Zero (but pretty close to zero)
- By Douglas on 02-06-14
By: Robert Wright
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The Nutmeg's Curse
- Parables for a Planet in Crisis
- By: Amitav Ghosh
- Narrated by: Sam Dastor
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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A powerful work of history, essay, testimony, and polemic, The Nutmeg’s Curse argues that the dynamics of climate change today are rooted in a centuries-old geopolitical order constructed by Western colonialism. At the center of Ghosh’s narrative is the now-ubiquitous spice nutmeg. The history of the nutmeg is one of conquest and exploitation—of both human life and the natural environment. In Ghosh’s hands, the story of the nutmeg becomes a parable for our environmental crisis.
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performance....
- By Bonnie on 11-15-22
By: Amitav Ghosh
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Against the Grain
- A Deep History of the Earliest States
- By: James C. Scott
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 8 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Why did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains and governed by precursors of today's states? Most people believe that plant and animal domestication allowed humans, finally, to settle down and form agricultural villages, towns, and states, which made possible civilization, law, public order, and a presumably secure way of living. But archaeological and historical evidence challenges this narrative.
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World without Women
- By Paul Richards on 04-28-18
By: James C. Scott
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The Ages of Globalization
- Geography, Technology, and Institutions
- By: Jeffrey D. Sachs
- Narrated by: Steve Menasche
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Today's most urgent problems are fundamentally global. They require nothing less than concerted, planetwide action if we are to secure a long-term future. But humanity's story has always been on a global scale. Sachs takes listeners through a series of seven distinct waves of technological and institutional change, starting with the original settling of the planet by early modern humans through long-distance migration and ending with reflections on today's globalization.
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Narrator.
- By ROGER QUESADA on 08-03-20
By: Jeffrey D. Sachs
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The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution
- By: Francis Fukuyama
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 22 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions which included a central state that could keep the peace and uniform laws that applied to all citizens. Some went on to create governments that were accountable to their constituents. We take these institutions for granted, but they are absent or are unable to perform in many of today’s developing countries—with often disastrous consequences for the rest of the world.
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Few forests, but lots of trees
- By Steve Pagano on 10-05-15
By: Francis Fukuyama
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World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction
- A John Hope Franklin Center Book
- By: Immanuel Wallerstein
- Narrated by: Fred Filbrich
- Length: 4 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In World-Systems Analysis, Immanuel Wallerstein provides a concise and accessible introduction to the comprehensive approach that he pioneered 30 years ago to understanding the history and development of the modern world. Since Wallerstein first developed world-systems analysis, it has become a widely utilized methodology within the historical social sciences and a common point of reference in discussions of globalization.
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Uneven, but Ambitious
- By Logical Paradox on 08-27-14
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Why did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains and governed by precursors of today's states? Most people believe that plant and animal domestication allowed humans, finally, to settle down and form agricultural villages, towns, and states, which made possible civilization, law, public order, and a presumably secure way of living. But archaeological and historical evidence challenges this narrative.
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World without Women
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Two Cheers for Anarchism
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James Scott taught us what's wrong with seeing like a state. Now, in his most accessible and personal book to date, the acclaimed social scientist makes the case for seeing like an anarchist. Inspired by the core anarchist faith in the possibilities of voluntary cooperation without hierarchy, Two Cheers for Anarchism is an engaging, high-spirited, and often very funny defense of an anarchist way of seeing - one that provides a unique and powerful perspective on everything from everyday social and political interactions to mass protests and revolutions.
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Three cheeers for Two cheers for Anarchism
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Weapons of the Weak
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This sensitive picture of the constant and circumspect struggle waged by peasants materially and ideologically against their oppressors shows that techniques of evasion and resistance may represent the most significant and effective means of class struggle in the long run.
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The Art of Not Being Governed
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From the acclaimed author and scholar James C. Scott comes the compelling account of Asian peoples who until recently have stemmed the vast tide of state-making to live at arm’s length from any organized state society.
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The Dream Machine
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Behind every great revolution is a vision, and behind perhaps the greatest revolution of our time, personal computing, is the vision of J.C.R. Licklider. In a simultaneously compelling personal narrative and comprehensive historical exposition, Waldrop tells the story of the man who not only instigated the work that led to the internet, but also shifted our understanding of what computers were and could be.
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Biographies, not technical
- By D. Garber on 01-16-20
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The Rise and Fall of American Growth
- The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War
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In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, home appliances, motor vehicles, air travel, air conditioning, and television transformed households and workplaces. With medical advances, life expectancy between 1870 and 1970 grew from 45 to 72 years. The Rise and Fall of American Growth provides an in-depth account of this momentous era.
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Over-detailed, with no engaging message
- By BehA on 01-31-17
By: Robert J. Gordon
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Against the Grain
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Why did humans abandon hunting and gathering for sedentary communities dependent on livestock and cereal grains and governed by precursors of today's states? Most people believe that plant and animal domestication allowed humans, finally, to settle down and form agricultural villages, towns, and states, which made possible civilization, law, public order, and a presumably secure way of living. But archaeological and historical evidence challenges this narrative.
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World without Women
- By Paul Richards on 04-28-18
By: James C. Scott
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Two Cheers for Anarchism
- Six Easy Pieces on Autonomy, Dignity, and Meaningful Work and Play
- By: James C. Scott
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James Scott taught us what's wrong with seeing like a state. Now, in his most accessible and personal book to date, the acclaimed social scientist makes the case for seeing like an anarchist. Inspired by the core anarchist faith in the possibilities of voluntary cooperation without hierarchy, Two Cheers for Anarchism is an engaging, high-spirited, and often very funny defense of an anarchist way of seeing - one that provides a unique and powerful perspective on everything from everyday social and political interactions to mass protests and revolutions.
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Three cheeers for Two cheers for Anarchism
- By doodoo on 01-16-16
By: James C. Scott
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Weapons of the Weak
- Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance
- By: James C. Scott
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- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
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This sensitive picture of the constant and circumspect struggle waged by peasants materially and ideologically against their oppressors shows that techniques of evasion and resistance may represent the most significant and effective means of class struggle in the long run.
By: James C. Scott
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The Art of Not Being Governed
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From the acclaimed author and scholar James C. Scott comes the compelling account of Asian peoples who until recently have stemmed the vast tide of state-making to live at arm’s length from any organized state society.
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The Dream Machine
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Behind every great revolution is a vision, and behind perhaps the greatest revolution of our time, personal computing, is the vision of J.C.R. Licklider. In a simultaneously compelling personal narrative and comprehensive historical exposition, Waldrop tells the story of the man who not only instigated the work that led to the internet, but also shifted our understanding of what computers were and could be.
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Biographies, not technical
- By D. Garber on 01-16-20
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The Rise and Fall of American Growth
- The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War
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In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, home appliances, motor vehicles, air travel, air conditioning, and television transformed households and workplaces. With medical advances, life expectancy between 1870 and 1970 grew from 45 to 72 years. The Rise and Fall of American Growth provides an in-depth account of this momentous era.
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Over-detailed, with no engaging message
- By BehA on 01-31-17
By: Robert J. Gordon
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Domination and the Arts of Resistance
- Hidden Transcripts
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In this book, renowned social scientist James C. Scott offers a penetrating discussion both of the public roles played by the powerful and powerless and the mocking, vengeful tone they display off stage—what he terms their public and hidden transcripts. Using examples from the literature, history, and politics of cultures around the world, Scott examines the many guises this interaction has taken throughout history and the tensions and contradictions it reflects.
By: James C. Scott
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The Big Score
- The Billion-Dollar Story of Silicon Valley
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Over the past five decades, the tech industry has grown into one of the most important sectors of the global economy, and Silicon Valley - replete with sprawling office parks, sky-high rents, and countless self-made millionaires - is home to many of its key players. But the origins of Silicon Valley and the tech sector are much humbler. At a time when tech companies’ influence continues to grow, The Big Score chronicles how they began.
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Worthwhile and engaging.
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Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real Libertalia
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Pirates have long lived in the realm of romance and fantasy, symbolizing risk, lawlessness, and radical visions of freedom. But at the root of this mythology is a rich history of pirate societies—vibrant, imaginative experiments in self-governance and alternative social formations at the edges of the European empire.
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A fun historical analysis of Pirate political systems
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The Philosophy of Social Ecology
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What is nature? What is humanity's place in nature? And what is the relationship of society to the natural world? In an era of ecological breakdown, answering these questions has become of momentous importance for our everyday lives and for the future that we and other life-forms face. In the essays of The Philosophy of Social Ecology, Murray Bookchin confronts these questions head on, invoking the ideas of mutualism, self-organization, and unity in diversity, in the service of ever-expanding freedom.
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Pure jargon headache.
- By J. Casey Bourgeois on 03-21-23
By: Murray Bookchin, and others
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Economism
- Bad Economics and the Rise of Inequality
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In order to illuminate the fallacies of economism, James Kwak first offers a primer on supply and demand, market equilibrium, and social welfare: the underpinnings of most popular economic arguments. Then he provides a historical account of how economism became a prevalent mode of thought in the United States - focusing on the people who packaged Econ 101 into sound bites that were then repeated until they took on the aura of truth.
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With no graphs, the audio version is useless.
- By Thomas on 03-07-17
By: James Kwak, and others
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The Machiavellians
- Defenders of Freedom
- By: James Burnham
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
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This classic work of political theory and practice offers an account of the modern Machiavellians, a remarkable group who have been influential in Europe and practically unknown in the United States. The book devotes a long section to Machiavelli himself as well as to such modern Machiavellians as Gaetano Mosca, Georges Sorel, Robert Michels and Vilfredo Pareto. Burnham contends that the writings of these men hold the key both to the truth about politics and to the preservation of political liberty.
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Fine intro to an authentic science of politics
- By Walter on 10-24-11
By: James Burnham
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The Democracy Project
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- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
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Democracy has been the American religion since before the Revolution - from New England town halls to the multicultural democracy of Atlantic pirate ships. But can our current political system, one that seems responsive only to the wealthiest among us and leaves most Americans feeling disengaged, voiceless, and disenfranchised, really be called democratic? And if the tools of our democracy are not working to solve the rising crises we face, how can we - average citizens - make change happen? David Graeber, one of the most influential scholars and activists of his generation, takes listeners on a journey through the idea of democracy.
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Must-read: such insight, an awakening!
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The Great Transformation
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In this classic work of economic history and social theory, Karl Polanyi analyzes the economic and social changes brought about by the great transformation of the Industrial Revolution. His analysis explains not only the deficiencies of the self-regulating market, but the potentially dire social consequences of untempered market capitalism. New introductory material reveals the renewed importance of Polanyi's seminal analysis in an era of globalization and free trade.
By: Karl Polanyi
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The Managerial Revolution
- What Is Happening in the World
- By: James Burnham
- Narrated by: Keith Hahn
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Written in 1941, this is the book that theorized how the world was moving into the hands of the "managers". Burnham explains how capitalism had virtually lost its control, and would be displaced not by labour, nor by socialism, but by the rule of administrators in business and in government.
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Horrendous narrator
- By Trick009 on 04-30-22
By: James Burnham
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Stubborn Attachments
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In this new audiobook, Stubborn Attachments: A Vision for a Society of Free, Prosperous, and Responsible Individuals, Cowen argues that our reason and common sense can help free us of the faulty ideas that hold us back as people and as a society. Stubborn Attachments, at its heart, makes the contemporary moral case for economic growth and delivers a great dose of inspiration and optimism about our future possibilities.
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Causal vs casual
- By Amazon Customer on 11-24-18
By: Tyler Cowen
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Dealers of Lightning
- Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age
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The riveting story of the legendary Xerox PARC, a collection of eccentric young inventors brought together by Xerox Corporation at a facility in Palo Alto, California, during the mind-blowing intellectual ferment of the '70s and '80s.
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Audio quality is bad, story is awe inducing
- By David Phillips on 01-14-15
By: Michael Hiltzik
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A Conflict of Visions
- Ideological Origins of Political Struggles
- By: Thomas Sowell
- Narrated by: Michael Edwards
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In this book, which the author calls a "culmination of 30 years of work in the history of ideas", Sowell attempts to explain the ideological difference between liberals and conservatives as a disagreement over the moral potential inherent in nature. Those who see that potential as limited prefer to constrain governmental authority, he argues. They feel that reform is difficult and often dangerous, and put their faith in family, custom, law, and traditional institutions.
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Critical read for 2008 change election
- By Elaine C Grimes on 06-05-08
By: Thomas Sowell
What listeners say about Seeing Like a State
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- AaronJacob Shane Lampe
- 04-06-22
Imperative
This work could be instrumental in understanding the implementation of technical thinking in the 19th and 20th centuries. Especially from an agrarian standpoint. This is huge.
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- Ian Turner
- 12-19-22
Estate planning, put on display
The book serves as a clear demonstration of the logic, vicissitudes and ultimately the inefficiencies behind centralized planning systems in any statist system. The book goes a long way to make the case for autonomous individuals in small communities, making more flexible less rigid decisions.
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- Amazon Customer
- 12-01-23
Micro Managing at the Macro Level
This is a great breakdown of how highly educated and accredited “elites” use their book knowledge to micromanage events at a macro level without any understanding of local knowledge and customs.
Anyone who thinks they understand how to run someone else’s life better than they do should read this book. That includes anyone running for public office or working as a public servant.
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- Anonymous User
- 10-21-24
Learn how the altruistic utilitarian visions of human nature fail!
The author goes into detail how visions don’t meet on the ground reality and the dangers of that within, highly recommended!
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- Philo
- 09-05-18
The new logic of all behavior
Just the headline idea: that every entity seeks to bend the world into legibility to itself, often obliterating things outside of this logic -- is worth the price of admission. The writing is peppered with insight, on levels of behavioral logic, cognitive science, philosophy, ecology, politics, economics and more. Whether or not that was the author's intention, I see all this in it. And I see the way humanity will probably have its most large-scale failures. This is a worthy milestone in human awareness, even if we end up watching it play out with devastating consequences.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Hamish Kavanagh
- 09-21-20
Good content, but a bit dry
This book is very engaging at times and overall contains some interesting content. However, there definitely some slow patches that I found myself grinding through. Nonetheless, I learnt quite a bit so perhaps there was a trade off for that hard work.
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- zoia krioukova
- 12-03-23
A must read
Necessary reading in order to understand the shaping of the modern world. And engaging and revelatory look at the high modernist systems that control the world.
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- Alison
- 04-02-19
Best Work on State's Vision and Reshaping Forces
One of the best works in politics, society, and anthropology. Clearly describes and illustrates the relationship between the State and the society it both rules and is embedded in.
Discusses the forces of social organisation both implemented by the State and naturally evolving outside the State, and describes how the State reshapes society to better coincide with its methods of seeing society.
If you liked this, you'll like Bureaucracy by Ludwig von Mises (examination of the forces behind bureaucracy's behavior - cf Public Choice theory). Also read more James C Scott - Two Cheers For Anarchy (the good in Anarchy) and Against The Grain (the development of States with that of agriculture).
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- Matt
- 05-05-22
Excellent critique of state intervention
Seeing like a state is a critique of 'high modernism' a reductive disposition of the state towards society aimed at making it more 'legible' (manageable and readable for state purposes such as taxation) by attempting to simplify, organise and mould society, often with disasterous consequences deriving not least from interrupting or depleting complex systems whose principles the state does not fully comprehend, or ignoring or suppressing the application of practical or contextual knowledge ('metis').
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- Erik The Red
- 11-28-22
Excellent
Government which is small and focuses on the locality works best. The author proves this time and time again. Good narration.
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