The Art of Not Being Governed turns on its head our common notions about how social change unfolds. Scott describes how highland barbarians and other "savage" people sought to maintain an existence that was at once more free and more productive than that offered by the state. Though grounded in Zomia—the mountainous frontier between China, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China—it is an argument that can well be applied to the Middle East, Europe, the American west, and other regions.