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Para-sites of capitalism -- Can the mosquito speak? -- Principles true in every country -- The character of calculability -- Peasant studies -- The invention and reinvention of the peasant -- Nobody listens to a poor man -- Heritage and violence -- Fixing the economy -- The object of development -- The market's place -- Dreamland In a series of interrelated essays focused on 20th-century Egypt, Timothy Mitchell, a widely-known political theorist provides an examination of the forms of reason, power and expertise that characterize contemporary politics Can one explain the power of global capitalism without attributing to capital a logic and coherence it does not have? Can one account for the powers of techno-science in terms that do not merely reproduce its own understanding of the world?Rule of Experts examines these questions through a series of interrelated essays focused on Egypt in the twentieth century. These explore the way malaria, sugar cane, war, and nationalism interacted to produce the techno-politics of the modern Egyptian state; the forms of debt, discipline, and violence that founded the institution of private property; the methods of measurement, circulation, and exchange that produced the novel idea of a national "economy," yet made its accurate representation impossible; the stereotypes and plagiarisms that created the scholarly image of the Egyptian peasant; and the interaction of social logics, horticultural imperatives, powers of desire, and political forces that turned programs of economic reform in unanticipated directions.Mitchell is a widely known political theorist and one of the most innovative writers on the Middle East. He provides a rich examination of the forms of reason, power, and expertise that characterize contemporary politics. Together, these intellectually provocative essays will challenge a broad spectrum of readers to think harder, more critically, and more politically about history, power, and theory Frontmatter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Note on Transliteration -- Introduction -- I. PARA-SITES OF CAPITALISM -- 1. Can the Mosquito Speak? -- 2. Principles True in Every Country -- 3. The Character of Calculability -- II. PEASANT STUDIES -- 4. The Invention and Reinvention of the Peasant -- 5. Nobody Listens to a Poor Man -- 6. Heritage and Violence -- III. FIXING THE ECONOMY -- 7. The Object of Development -- 8. The Market’s Place -- 9. Dreamland -- Notes -- Select Bibliography -- Index
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