State projects of legibility and simplification -- Nature and space -- Cities, people, and language -- Transforming visions -- Authoritarian high modernism -- The high-modernist city : an experiment and a critique -- The Revolutionary Party : a plan and a diagnosis -- The social engineering of rural settlement and production -- Soviet collectivization, capitalist dreams -- Compulsory villagization in Tanzania : aesthetics and miniaturization -- Taming nature : an agriculture of legibility and simplicity -- The missing link -- Thin simplifications and practical knowledge : mētis -- Conclusion.