August 2021: Agriculture, the State, and Liberty
Please join us in August, 2021 for Agriculture, the State, and Liberty, with historian and cattle rancher Paul Schwennesen.
Pre-registration is required. Participants will need to acquire a copy of James C. Scott's Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States. The complementary readings are available online.
The sessions and readings are as follows:
Session One (Thursday, August 5, noon - 1pm EDT)
James C. Scott, Against the Grain, Introduction (pages 1-36).
Session Two (Thursday, August 12, noon - 1pm EDT)
James C. Scott, Against the Grain, Chapter 1, “The Domestication of Fire, Plants, Animals, and… Us” (pages 37-67)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract, Book I, Chapters 1-6
Session Three (Thursday, August 19, noon - 1pm EDT)
James C. Scott, Against the Grain, Chapter 5, “Population Control: Bondage and War”” (pages 150-182)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, On the Social Contract, (the Geneva Manuscript) Book I, Chapters 1-6
Session Four (Thursday, August 26, noon - 1pm EDT)
James C. Scott, Against the Grain, Chapter 6, “Fragility of the Early State: Collapse as Disassembly”” (pages 183-218)
Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Volume I, Book III, Chapter 3, Of the Rise and Progress of Cities and Towns, after the Fall of the Roman Empire
Extra Credit (in the Time of Covid…): “Against the Grain” Ch. 3, “Zoonoses: A Perfect Epidemiological Storm” (~24 pages)