The Art of Not Being Governed
An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia
by James C. Scott · first published 2009
60% recommend40% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Reframes history from the perspective of non-state peoples in upland Southeast Asia, showing how hill societies deliberately stayed outside state control; a revelatory read for history students and general readers.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia is a book-length anthropological and historical study of the Zomia highlands of Southeast Asia written by James C. Scott published in 2009. Zomia, as defined by Scott, includes all the lands at elevations above 300 meters stretching from the Central Highlands of Vietnam to northeastern India. That encompasses parts of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar, as well as four provinces of China. Zomia's 100 million residents are minority peoples "of truly bewildering ethnic and linguistic variety", he write
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Non-Fiction (Science) - *The Selfish Gene* by Richard Dawkins - *The Righteous Mind* by Jonathan Haidt - *Thinking, Fast and Slow* by Daniel Kahneman Non-Fiction (Social) - *The Art of Not Being Governed* by James C. Scott - *The Unwinding* by George Packer - *People's History of the United States* by Howard Zinn Fiction - *East of Eden* by John Steinbeck - *Sometimes a Great Notion* by Ken…
on “Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?” ↗…plays the long game, and the odds are rigged against us. [1] Jacques Ellul "The Technological Society" (pdf) https://archive.org/details/JacquesEllulTheTechnologicalSoci... [2] James C. Scott "The Art of Not being Governed" (pdf) https://libcom.org/files/Art.pdf [3] James C. Scott "Seeing Like a State" https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300078152/seeing-state / pdf: https://libcom.org/files/Seeing%20Like%20a%20State%20-%20Jam...
on “Mastercard investing in technology to identify commuters by gait, heartbeat” ↗…there are a lot more out there. Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman Coming Into the Country - John McPhee The Unwinding - George Packer Anything by James C Scott (Thinking Like a State, The Art of Not Being Governed) The Righteous Mind - John Haidt The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins (Regardless of how you feel about his current public persona, this book published in 1976 is an absolute classic)
on “Analyzing Hacker News book suggestions in Python” ↗…Anarchism but some form of grass-roots political movement. The point of anarchism is not taking part like the Jawari or Andaman people, or the hill tribes in South East Asia. see also James C. Scott: "The Art of Not Being Governed, An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia" https://libcom.org/files/Art.pdf
on “Anarchists Who Took the Commuter Train” ↗the ultimate resource in all things history of crops and how people came about to cultivate rice (or stay clear of it) has to be James C. Scott[1][2] "The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia" > For two thousand years, the disparate groups that now reside in Zomia (a mountainous region the size of Europe—2.5 million km2—that consists of portions…
on “How Rice Farming Shaped Culture in Southern China (2018)” ↗Loving the James Scott fan club on HN. Putting in a plug for the Art of Not Being Governed as well.
on “Sam Altman’s Manifest Destiny” ↗…built a highway through where he lived which he viewed as destruction of the habitat. he ended up having to avoid hikers and tourists). Another great book that also touch on that is James C Scott The Art of Not Being Governed[2] [1] https://archive.org/details/JacquesEllulTheTechnologicalSoci... [2] https://libcom.org/files/Art.pdf
on “Ted Kaczynski's Manifesto [pdf]” ↗…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini#Theory_of_infl... <- could probably be described as a modern / dark adversarial take in "how to make friends and influence people" and should be read with Kahneman & Tversky's books/papers. 4) James C. Scott "The Art of Not being Governed" https://libcom.org/files/Art.pdf 5) Dickens "Hard Times" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Times_(novel) <- for it's description of the effects on peasant communities during industrialization, which…
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗"Seeing Like A State" is a superb book, but I'll always remember Scott for "The Art of Not Being Governed." I was a history major in college, and seeing history from the point of view of non-state peoples was revelatory for a young student. I greatly enjoyed it, truly one of those experiences in life where…
on “James C. Scott, author of Seeing Like a State, has died” ↗Loved “The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance” by Herman Wouk - middlebrow from the 70s but no less good for that. Re-read “The Art of Not Being Governed” by James C Scott which is really mind-expanding stuff.
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗This is veering into a different topic, but I'd encourage you to read "The Dawn Of Everything" (2021) & "The Art of Not Being Governed" (2009) for long term examples of non-hierarchal societies. It may be inevitable that people may rise up to seek power over others, but the question is what is the best way to respond to this? Do we…
on “The Socialist Calculation Debate” ↗Against the Grain is great. I'm drawing upon Seeing Like A State and The Art of Not Being Governed.
on “The world is not an engineering problem” ↗You might want to read the book The Art of Not Being Governed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Not_Being_Governed which discusses in some detail the advantages of living in "marginally" farmable hillcountry.
on “Pre-Modern Battlefields (2015)” ↗Review / summary of - seeing like a state: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/03/16/book-review-seeing-like-a-state/ - the art of not being governed: https://www.thepsmiths.com/p/review-the-art-of-not-being-governed both worth reading if you have the time.
on “James C. Scott, author of Seeing Like a State, has died” ↗I'm half way into a book by James C Scott "The Art of Not Being Governed, An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia"[1][2] where he makes a compelling case for why (hill) people/tribes evolve differently. Not because they are in some sense isolated (and backward). It's…
on “New species of ancient human discovered in the Philippines: Homo luzonensis” ↗