Asia Society is pleased to announce the winner of its 2010 Bernard Schwartz Book Award: James C. Scott’s The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia (Yale University Press), an enlightening examination of the pressures faced by indigenous peoples in the mountainous region connecting Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma, northeast India and southern China.
By recounting the improbable quest for self determination of the hill peoples from this region, Scott redefines our views on Asian politics, history, and demographics, and challenges conventional notions about the relationship between pre-modern rural populations and the nation-state.
Scott, the Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology at Yale University and one of the world's preeminent scholars on Southeast Asia today, will receive a $20,000 prize and be honored at a public event at Asia Society in New York on Monday, November 22, 2010.
Jury co-chairs Professor Carol Gluck and Ambassador Tommy Koh commended the jury’s selection, chosen from a pool of over 85 books. “A tour de force of social science and sympathetic writing, Scott's study of the hill peoples of upland Asia demonstrates how much of human experience is left out of our nation-centered thinking, not only in Southeast Asia but around the world,” said Professor Gluck.
According to Ambassador Koh, “The peoples who live on the hills and mountains of Asia are little understood. We tend to view them as exotic and in need of civilization. Scott's book forces us to look at the world from their perspective. Scott’s insights are equally relevant to the hill peoples of Afghanistan and Pakistan."
“We are thrilled to award the second annual Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Book Award to such an original and thoroughly researched piece of work,” said Asia Society President Vishakha N. Desai. “We hope this award will help raise awareness about the plight of stateless people, wherever they may reside.”
The Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Book Award is an annual award that recognizes nonfiction books offering outstanding contributions and new perspectives in understanding contemporary Asia or U.S.-Asia relations. In keeping with the Asia Society’s mission, the award is designed to further public awareness of the changes taking place in Asia and the implications for the wider world, and to raise the profile of authors making a meaningful contribution to this dialogue.
More information here.
By recounting the improbable quest for self determination of the hill peoples from this region, Scott redefines our views on Asian politics, history, and demographics, and challenges conventional notions about the relationship between pre-modern rural populations and the nation-state.
Scott, the Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology at Yale University and one of the world's preeminent scholars on Southeast Asia today, will receive a $20,000 prize and be honored at a public event at Asia Society in New York on Monday, November 22, 2010.
Jury co-chairs Professor Carol Gluck and Ambassador Tommy Koh commended the jury’s selection, chosen from a pool of over 85 books. “A tour de force of social science and sympathetic writing, Scott's study of the hill peoples of upland Asia demonstrates how much of human experience is left out of our nation-centered thinking, not only in Southeast Asia but around the world,” said Professor Gluck.
According to Ambassador Koh, “The peoples who live on the hills and mountains of Asia are little understood. We tend to view them as exotic and in need of civilization. Scott's book forces us to look at the world from their perspective. Scott’s insights are equally relevant to the hill peoples of Afghanistan and Pakistan."
“We are thrilled to award the second annual Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Book Award to such an original and thoroughly researched piece of work,” said Asia Society President Vishakha N. Desai. “We hope this award will help raise awareness about the plight of stateless people, wherever they may reside.”
The Asia Society Bernard Schwartz Book Award is an annual award that recognizes nonfiction books offering outstanding contributions and new perspectives in understanding contemporary Asia or U.S.-Asia relations. In keeping with the Asia Society’s mission, the award is designed to further public awareness of the changes taking place in Asia and the implications for the wider world, and to raise the profile of authors making a meaningful contribution to this dialogue.
More information here.
