The trail of history shows a steadily increasing level of technology and efficiency, or so we would believe. This book looks at the connections between 'high modernism', i.e. the belief that implementation of new technology can solve the world's problems, and various tragedies that have occurred in the past two hundred years. Several aspects of the book fascinated me, including:
The idea that states will seek to organize things in order to maximize control to ensure both stability, and, more importantly, tax revenues;
The history of state building, through changes in social institutions, societal structure, and even simple things such as creation of maps;
The juxtaposition of small-scale and large-scale farming, and the relative strength and sustainability of small-scale farming;
Case studies of development projects in the former USSR, Tanzania, and Ethiopia, as well as planned cities in Brazil and India and urban modification of Paris; and,
The idea that formal laws and codes cannot fully substitute for real-world experience, with the example of 'work-to-rule' strikes in France, in which workers strike simply by carrying out the duties required of them by law and no more.
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