Domination and the Arts of Resistance

James C. Scott (1936–2024) was Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology Emeritus at Yale University. His many books include Seeing Like a State, Agrarian Studies, The Art of Not Being Governed, and Against the Grain.

“Scott argues his thesis uncompromisingly and with relentless power. From his vantage point it is easy to see through many standard illusions of social science. . . . Scott’s argument is all the more persuasive for the wealth of cases he brings under his magnifying-glass and for the vibrancy and liveliness of his style. One is tempted to say that his own discourse is a revelation of that transcript normally hidden by the ‘official’ discourse of sociology and an example of how rich and fascinating such hidden transcripts can be by comparison with the rhetoric of pretence.”—Zygmunt Bauman, Times Literary Supplement“Likely to become a classic work of theory in the social sciences and history. Its arguments are original, subtle, clear, and accessible to readers without theoretical inclinations.”—John D. Rogers, Journal of Asian Studies“Scott elaborates his argument with a dazzling array of illustrations drawn from centuries of history and all four corners of the earth. . . . Intellectually convincing and also very moving—not something one expects to find in an academic treatise.”—Paul Littlewood, SociologyReceived an Honorable Mention for the 1990 Professional/Scholarly Publishing Division Award in the History, Government, and Political Science category given by the AAP“Drawing on a dazzling array of source material, the book is a wonderful read as well as a provocative discussion of a global phenomenon of great importance. It seems destined to throw out a major challenge to the existing literature on power and domination, and to set in train a new school of research.”—Anthony Reid, Australian National University“An engaging as well as intellectually provocative book, this will be a major theoretical contribution to debates about power.”—Theda Skocpol, Harvard University“A splendid study, surely one of the most important that has appeared on the whole matter of power and resistance. It is rich in apt evidence and extremely effective and original.”—Natalie Zemon Davis, Princeton University

• Behind the official story; domination, acting and fantasy; the public transcript as a respectable performance; false-consciousness or laying it on thick; making social space for a dissident subculture; voice under domination - the arts of political disguise; the infrapolitics of subordinate groups; a saturnalia of power - the first public declaration of the hidden transcript.