> Unlikely to the point of making one angry. It shocks the intellect. I am sincere when I say you need to read considerably more history. You could start with

> Unlikely to the point of making one angry. It shocks the intellect. I am sincere when I say you need to read considerably more history. You could start with Seeing Like a State, the book this article is reviewing, since it contains many examples that would, apparently, shock your intellect. Many of the schemes tried in history are certainly shocking. If you want to flip through Wikipedia instead I would suggest looking into the works or deeds of Le Corbusier, Earl Butz(! maybe the man solely responsible for massive scale farms in the USA), Robert McNamara, Robert Moses, Jean Monnet, the Shah of Iran, David Lilienthal, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Julius Nyerere, and for examples of re-ordering existing neighborhoods especially the work of Moses, but also Haussmann's renovation of Paris, and Le Corbusier's proposed (but never enacted) remaking of Paris center. Maybe also read about Oscar Niemeyer and the making of Brasilia. Or, if you want a US centric look try The Death and Life of Great American Cities, where Jane Jacobs details lots of things that happened in the USA that you may term "unlikely." > we have to assume, as I'll do, a first-world democracy It's not clear why you'd have to assume this. The book covers societies in very different times, across continents, but certainly includes first-world democracies, as well as forced villagizationin in Ethiopia, forced standards conversion in medieval France, the rise of grids in many countries, and so on.