検索キーワード： "James C Scott" すべてのカテゴリー

Why do well-intentioned plans for improving the human condition go tragically awry? Author 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.

Rivers, on a long view, are alive. They are born; they change; they shift their channels; they forge new routes to the sea; they move both gradually and violently; they can teem (usually) with life; they may die a quasi-natural death; they are frequently maimed and even murdered. It is the annual flood pulse—the brief time when the river occupies the floodplain—that gives a river its vitality, but it is human engineering that kills it, suppressing the flood pulse with dams, irrigation, siltation, dikes, and levees.

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.

Fire is rarely out of the headlines, from large natural wildfires raging across the Australian or Californian countrysides to the burning of buildings such as the disasters of Grenfell tower and Notre Dame. Fire on these scales can represent a serious risk to human life and property. But the advent of fire made and controlled by humans also represented a crucial point in our evolution, allowing us to cook our food, forge our weapons, and warm our homes.

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.

Ten people, each with a dark past, are invited to an isolated mansion on Hare Island by a mysterious host. Once on the island, they are cut off from the outside world. Accusations are made and secrets revealed as guests die one by one, indicating one of them to be the culprit.

The War of Spanish Succession is over, many sailors are out of work, and the thriving American colonies are quickly becoming the place of opportunity. For Sam Bellamy it is the opportunity to become the captain of his own ship.

After the liberation of Front Royal from the Magus’ tyranny, Ryan Cawdor and his companions grieve the heart-wrenching loss of loved ones, but must carry on. Ryan and his surviving friends assume leadership roles in Front Royal, contributing to the rebuilding of the ville and the struggle to carve out a future for the beleaguered community. Ryan must learn how to be a good father for his unique baby daughter, and with the support of his larger family do his best to help her navigate the treacherous future that is her destiny. 

On the blood-stained battlefields of a divided nation, Dr. Samuel Knight used his surgical skills to treat wounded Confederate soldiers. In the brutal prison camps of the Union Army, he offered his healing services to fellow captives who’d given up hope. But now, with the war over and the South in ruins, the good doctor faces his hardest challenge yet: to save himself.

In This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald gives us Amory Blaine, who, from boyhood through his early 20s, is on a quest for his identity, his philosophy, and his sense of place in a world never quite his own, a world in which he moves with barely concealed ego-fueled disgust and contempt. Fitzgerald's breakthrough novel, written in 1920 when the author was 23, manages to be both a thinly veiled autobiography and a sincere attempt by Fitzgerald to get into the head of the young, privileged personages of his time.

Tales of the Jazz Age is a delightful, sobering, thought-provoking, and downright curious collection of 11 of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short stories, published after his first two novels - This Side of Paradise (1920) and The Beautiful and Damned (1922) - but before The Great Gatsby (1925).

Lucius Anoraq is about to give up on a completely routine case. That is until he ends up in the wrong place at the right time and gets caught up in a murder that leads to a ring of jewel thieves, a fortune-teller, corruption, and multiple murders.

After waking up from a coma - as a result of two slugs in a shootout - Private Detective Kaiser Wrench becomes embroiled in a deadly search for billions of dollars of missing mob money. 

Some of his enemies think Kaiser Wrench has softened with age, but he leaps into action when he finds his secretary severely beaten and a mutilated tiger in his desk chair. Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to The Carnage Male, and experience the compelling world of detective fiction.

Kaiser Wrench’s voluptuous, long-lost love and lynx is alive and targeted by the infamous assassin known as the Chimera. 

Playing protector to a runaway puppy-faced poodle, Kaiser Wrench trades barbs and lead with crooked politicos, snarling hoods, and a sex-hungry female. 

The doe was desperate, terrified, and out of her mind. Now she’s dead. Acting as an avenging angel, Private Detective Kaiser Wrench heads into an underground urban nightmare. 

Tiny Wallace’s one claim to fame was knowing Kaiser Wrench. Was that reason enough for someone to gag, torture, and kill the mule? Or was it the five wallets found in his garbage? Bodies pile up while Kaiser returns the wallets, trying to find the killer while Duke and the feds are busy searching for a biological terrorist.

He was a nice cheetah. Now he's dead. Kaiser Wrench suspects murder, while the cops are calling it a suicide. Without a license or a gun, Wrench is pushing his way through a swirl of sex-and-game clubs, high priced models, and not just a little blackmail. Someone is working hard to frame Wrench and he’s working hard to find out why. Everywhere he turns, he keeps coming up against a beautiful tigress named Viola. She holds the key to the crime wave that could unlock the mystery behind the nice cheetah’s murder...

Private Detective Kaiser Wrench comes to the rescue of a prostitute. The next day, the papers say she’s dead from a hit and run. Her missing ring is the only thing he has to go on that proves she was murdered.