Civilization: The West and the Rest

Wow, what an amazing, exciting and insightful historical analysis of how we all got here! By "here," I mean to say, at Amazon, browsing books on line, reading the reviews of anonymous readers with wildly divergent opinions! Before I write anything, remember this: Comparative Culture is, by definition, based on human opinion, and its study can be polarizing and emotionally sensitive. This book will get your back up, one way or the other. There are many detailed reviews already written on this controversial volume, so I'll just cut RIGHT to the chase: If you're a conservative American (or European, for that matter), and you think we are "by God, the strongest country on earth, never been stronger, and all you foreign hordes coming from Asia can love it or leave it!" then this book is NOT for you. If you're a Tea Partier or a Rick Perry supporter, this book is going to rankle you, maybe even offend you, because Dr. Ferguson recognizes that the United States is an empire in serious trouble. But he doesn't leave the story there. On the other side of the coin, if you're a staunch "declinist," a radical environmentalist, an Occupier, or a gloom-and-doom jeremiah, this book will ALSO put you off. Niall Ferguson is far too sophisticated a social critic to be easily labeled. He's not a flag waving patriot, and he's not a red-hot revolutionary. He's an enormously accomplished historian who believes that our times are BAD, that civilization is dangerously close to rapid disintegration, that the loss of standards and civility in life are creating a world of unimaginable selfishness, that fear and greed rule the WORLD, not just the markets, and that mass consumerism leads to boredom, loneliness and depression. There's just one catch: He believes we can fix it. He believes we NEED to fix it, quickly, URGENTLY! So who will actually LIKE this book? Political scientists, intellectuals, and liberals with enough time and money to contemplate BIG issues will love this book. Your typical suburban professional, with a mind inquisitive enough to wonder what the hell is going on will love this book. Anyone living in the "West" with the feeling that we're muddling through a decade-long malaise will appreciate this book. Your political persuasion is really not important. Dr. Ferguson gets our attention by first dispelling the historical misconception that strong empires tend to fade away with time, due to internal stagnation and external competition. Well, he wants us to know that empires don't fade away, they CRUMBLE, usually within a generation. He supports this view with historical evidence. In other words, we live in a world within which many great civilizations have come crashing down due to [the same] internal stagnation and external competition in a matter of a few years. He thinks the "West," and the United States in particular, are dangerously close to falling off the cliff. The Eurozone, too. He wants to "save" the "West" from this outcome by 1) sounding the alarm and 2) offering recommendations on how this might be done. This is really, REALLY important and amazing stuff. The book centers around a metaphor of the "West" using its "killer apps" to rapidly advance economically from the "Rest" over the past 500 years. He sets up a beautifully effective structuralist argument that the "West" adopted an "operating system" which became the world standard, and that six "killer apps" were designed for that operating system that completely marginalized the rest of the world. Dr. Ferguson is quite specific about the six "killer apps" around which he constructs his argument. You'll have to read the book to learn what they are! He dedicates a chapter to detailed discussion of each of these killer apps, and explores how the "Rest" are catching up to the "West" because they have simply learned how to download these apps, and make them work within their own "operating system." The "Rest" adopted an "operating system" that may have been technically superior, but became marginal because it was not pragmatic or expedient. Here, he's referring to the great Asian and African civilizations, and he's stuffing (and generalizing) the comparative political analysis into a "Beta vs. VHS" or "Apple vs. Microsoft" metaphor. I love it! Here's the punchline: The six killer apps of the West have become corrupted by viruses and are losing there competitive advantage due to COMPLACENCY. We need to refocus on the continued development of our killer apps, and then "reboot" the entire system. We'll become the better performing, restored machine after this, moved back from the brink by own our effort and skill. We'll need to accommodate a new operating system too, because Asia is rapidly advancing. If we fail to recognize the problem, our killer apps, and our entire operating system may be replaced by another more aggressive and adaptable standard. The world will become one-sided. The metaphor refers here to the emergence of Asia, once again, supported by historical trends. For those of you who rave that Dr. Ferguson's thesis is racist, I offer this: He's not comparing RACE anywhere in the text, but he is comparing CULTURE. Once again, we're talking about comparative culture, which is an extremely sensitive topic. And, if anything, he is praising the enormous advancements of the civilizations OUTSIDE the "West." I think this is a brilliant thesis, told with powerful insight, strong historical references, and a lovely post-modern allegorical structure. Niall Ferguson doesn't know everything, but he is smart enough to know when things are bad enough to take notice. And he's optimistic enough in the tools he learned as a "Westerner" to believe that there's much more good work to do. The West is too young to die. Our apps work. They need updates... now. Will we heed the call to fix things, or will we let stagnant gridlock, selfish intolerance and complacency destroy our civilization? Niall Ferguson believes the choice is ours. WE can work for a better society, or we can continue to go our own way, knocking down anyone and everyone who stands in our way to... what? More debt, more stagnation, and more Lexapro? This book is, obviously, highly politically charged, and it does NOT respect the decorum we would generally describe as "politically correct." It's an easy read about weighty issues, but it's going to make you either mad as hell or thankful for such a penetrating mind. But if it moves you to action or, at least to contemplation, it's a successful book.

This is a wonderful, thought-provoking, but sadly undisciplined book. It's wonderful because Ferguson takes us on a erudite romp through history, ranging from Zhong He's 15th century African voyages to the siege of Vienna in 1680 to the foibles of the French in 19th century Africa to 21st century Christianity in China. Thought-provoking because it ask the right questions: Why has the West been more successful than other cultures, and what is needed to maintain the benefits that Western civilization has brought, not just in the West but throughout the world. (In another time and place, these questions might be less thought provoking, but in the current intellectual climate -- when one can be charged with racism merely for suggesting that not all cultures are equally conducive to human flourishing -- his ideas plow intellectual ground that for too many will be new terrain.) Undisciplined because in his exuberant exposition of all he touches on, Ferguson ultimately fails to prove his thesis. A lot is thrown up on the wall, a lot of it sticks, but in the end, its not clear that what remains paints the picture he wants it to. More on that below, but first a summary of the main points of the book. Ferguson maintains that the West surpassed "The Rest" of the world because of six defining characteristics that come together in the 16th century. (In a sop to the iGeneration, he annoyingly calls these characteristics "apps", a mistake that will date the book in a few years.) These six are competition, property rights, science, medicine, consumerism, and work. Each of the six main chapters of the book are devoted to one of these characteristics: * Competition: This refers not so much to the free market as to the fact that European powers were small and fragmented. Their drive to dominate each other drove them to innovate and to search for riches in the New World. This contrasts with China, where the monolithic state had no rival and was ruled by a complacent elite fully convinced of the superiority of all things Chinese. Thus, no drive to explore or change. * Science: The West developed the scientific method and exploited its technical applications. Despite the early appearance of certain technical advances and inventions in China, these were never developed systematically in the Middle Kingdom, and the underlying scientific method was never formulated. * Property rights: To some degree, this is misnamed, because his point is more about the rule of law in general. In the West, even ordinary people could expect a certain degree of legal protection of their rights, most significantly that of property, which enabled the rational deployment of capital and labor to commercial ends. * Medicine: Obviously, the ability to eliminate disease and heal injury vastly improves the quality of our lives. The West figured this out first. * Consumerism: We have learned to want more, which is an impetus for business to produce more, and more cheaply. * Work: Echoing Max Weber, Ferguson notes the Protestant roots of the West's work ethic. More importantly for Ferguson, the literacy that Protestants fostered (in order for people to be able to read the Bible) brought with it a whole host of benefits in increased intellectual freedom and economic creativity. Ferguson concludes his book by wondering if the West is losing these six virtues, and whether the rest of the world, China in particular, is picking them up. To add a little frisson, he discusses theories about the decline and fall of civilization and leans towards those that favor a sudden, "tipping point" collapse. It is not clear whether he feels the West must maintain a relative superiority over the Rest, or whether he is just arguing the West ought not to neglect what makes it great. The conjunction of these six characteristics no doubt go a long way to explaining the West's success. Yet I said above the book is undisciplined because in his discussion of these characteristics, much ink is spilled on topics that are essentially irrelevant to his topic. If you are going to put forth a list of factors that made the West great and are needed to keep it that way, you have to answer two questions: First, why those factors made it great, and, second, why those factors arose in the West and not elsewhere. Most of the discussion does neither of these things. The chapter on competition draws the obvious distinction between Europe and China. But the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas were also fragmented, and that didn't spur them on. And if Europe had still been united as in the days of Charlemagne, would that really have prevented the West's rise? It is not clear at all. The chapter on science is devoted mainly to a very interesting comparison of the declining Ottoman Empire with rising Europe, noting particularly weaponry, but without any real discussion of why science developed in the West and not in Turkey. The chapter on property is a bit more to the point, showing how the much wider distribution of property to North American settlers as compared to South American led to greater prosperity North of the border. But the second half of the chapter is a long discussion of the differences between North and South American slavery in which the property principle also plays: North American slaves were more fully property than their South American counterparts. But Ferguson is quick to deny that the application of property rights in this case had anything to do with North America's prosperity --- so why bring it up? The chapter on medicine is mainly about the nature of French imperialism in Africa. Very interesting, but not really to point. Besides, isn't the development of medicine just an application of science, i.e. shouldn't it have been subsumed into that chapter? The chapter on work is the best, but Ferguson seems to imply that China's economic rise is due to the spread of Christianity. It could certainly be argued that China's work ethic is more naturally attributable to the Confucian stress on education and the next generation (delayed gratification). This possibility is not considered, and that is a general problem with this book. Alternative hypotheses are not robustly engaged. Despite having just said Ferguson overreaches in attributing China's work ethic to Protestantism, my biggest critique of the book is that in its wide-ranging discussion, if fails to see that in 15th and 16th century Europe, Protestantism was a driving factor not only behind the work ethic and literacy, but also behind the other factors as well. Protestant Christianity placed a high worth on the individual and the individual's right of conscience. This was by far the most important change in the 15th century. Property rights (rule of law), medicine, and consumerism can all be seen as manifestations of a high regard for individual well-being. Respect for the individual also places a high value on freedom, which views competition - an inevitable outcome of the interaction of free individuals -- as a good thing. Science, too, despite the popular perception to the contrary, has its roots in Christian thinking. All of the great scientists of the 16th century were Christians who were confident of the possibility of scientific discovery precisely because of their belief that the natural world would operate according to divine laws that are comprehensible by reason. They viewed the "book of nature", together with Scripture, as part of God's revelation to us, and their job was to open that book up. It was only later that science and religion were viewed as conflicting. But despite failing to tie things together the way I like, this is a great book, well worth your time. For an interesting comparative treatment of the same topic, readers might also be interested in The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization .

Civilization by Niall Ferguson addresses the most important topic of our time. Empires rise and fall. The American empire took over from the British between the two wars. It did so on the basis of economic along with military might which underpin all empires. It is tautological that all empires before America's have declined into senescence. Is this now happening to America? Is western civilization in its final stages? Civilization gives much insight on this topic. The up-and-coming empire that may or may not supplant western civilization is that of China. China - the Middle Kingdom - was the reigning empire before the year 1500. To fathom the future of something as complex as that of empire it is vital to look back and understand why empires in the past have risen and fallen. Ferguson does journeyman's work on this. The preface is worth the price of admission. It is notable that the top business economist of the second half of the 20th century, Henry Kaufman of Solomon Brothers fame, induced Ferguson to move from London to the center of money and power, Manhattan. If America is going down, its decline will be dated from the epicentral destruction of Manhattan's twin towers. The value of the US dollar - also highly symbolic - peaked a few short months later, that is, historically coincident with. The closely following collapse of US financial markets in 2008 and the torpid recovery since, including the imploding financial system of Europe, puts the rise of China and relative fall of western civilization in high relief. In his preface, Ferguson gives a wonderful explication of how history - a living past - can help us discern possible futures so as to make better decisions today. He quotes in detail the thought process of R.G. Collingwood. History offers something different from scientific rules, namely insight. "The key point of the book is to understand what made ... [western] civilization expand so spectacularly in its wealth, influence, and power." This, as Ferguson emphasizes, requires telling the story with analytics, evidence, and testable counterfactual questions. By such methodology Ferguson arrives at six crucial innovations by which in his view western civilization climbed to the top, and which are the heart of the book. In his introductory chapter, Ferguson quashes the modernist absurdity of relativism - that all civilizations are in some sense equal. He does so by introducing a number of nonpareil concepts like life expectancy across time and place, the economic system, and non-economic institutions, all of which dynamically over time differentiated western civilization from the rest of the world during the relevant timespan. He then lays out what he believes are the mainsprings of the West's rise - six "novel complexes of institutions and associated ideas and behaviors": Competition, Science, Property Rights, Medicine, The Consumer Society, and The Work Ethic. These are the subjects of chapters 1-6. The difficulty of conceptualizing a work like this lies in finding an Archimedean-like place far enough removed to get leverage on the trees so as to reveal the breadth and nature of the forest as well as the species of trees that make it up. This ability, though it is not normally put this way, is why we revere Newton, Einstein, Darwin, Gibbon, Adam Smith and statesmen like Gandhi and Churchill and Deng Xiaoping. They got their arms around big things and moved the world of ideas. Not every thought has to be original, and not every tree has to be (or indeed can be) put under the lens. What matters is that the kaleidoscope of world view gets shifted to make more sense out of what is otherwise chaos. Civilization has changed my view of the world by giving me a concrete set of pegs on which to hang the various aspects of causality in my quest to understand empire. Competition is the sine qua non of free market economics. How can it not be that the dynamic effect of competition amongst the splintered states of Europe from 1500 on was a powerful force moving western civilization forward? Of course competition was not a sufficient force, it took more. Gutenberg's printing press set off the intellectual revolution (innovation) that led to the scientific method (Chapter 2). Of course sanctity of the individual's right to own Property (Chapter 3) is at the motivational heart of saving that permits accumulation of capital, which in turn is a necessary means of production to grow an economy. The East has adopted capitalism now, no matter that it be called something else, and is surging economically since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the spread of globalism. Western medicine (Chapter 4) has made all the difference to life span. It's hardly a stretch to think it was a game changer for the West. And, there is more (of a secondary nature) in this chapter on how colonization by Europe, which had its down side, also had a powerful upside on many peoples outside the West via the travels of medicine. Consumption (Chapter 5) is an odd one, and it is thought provoking to view this largest component of GDP from Ferguson's perspective. I did not realize that textiles were the main industrial product at first in England and then synchronously at the take-off stage of every country which has gotten on the up escalator thereafter. China as well. You can almost predict textile production will at some point come to the Congo. And you will never look at a pair of jeans the same way again after reading Civilization. Work (Chapter 6) goes without saying. Ferguson gets you thinking about how the work ethic in America is slipping, even more so in Europe, and how statistically work effort is almost in a different ballpark in the East (they work more hours). This has implications for the future of empire, and from the broadest of contexts points to policy implications about work incentives here in America. This frame should be a starting point for thinking about the welfare state and optimal taxation of work effort. Ferguson puts his sixth finger squarely on it. I leave his conclusion for to the reader to discover. Highly recommended with 5 stars.

Niall Ferguson has the following impressive credentials: Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University; the William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School; a senior research fellow of Jesus College, Oxford; and a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford. How’s that for a resume. He has the education, undeniably, but is he astute about how the world is right now and what made it that way? The answer is: Yes, he is. And he shows it in this comparison of Western civilization’s free market capitalism versus every other kind of political, social, and economic construct over the course of 500 years and how it has provided better economic and social benefit than what he terms all “the Rest.” Tackling that kind of historical, political, and economic analysis is courageous and daunting. However, Ferguson is up to the challenge, offering cogent reasons why capitalism in the form of free-market entrepreneurship was a success over the course of those five centuries and why all the other systems, such as communism and socialism and the last of the Ming dynasties were not. As with all great professors, he makes unique comparisons and offers outside-the-box examples to support his assertions. The inward looking philosophy and mistrust of innovation by the Ming dynasties of the late 18th and early 19th centuries was reflected in their rejection of the European clocks of that era when the clock was originally invented by the Chinese. Of course the pendulum has shifted 180 degrees from that insularity by China today. The role of Gutenberg’s printing press in the spread of Martin Luther’s Reformation ideas, which encouraged wealth as a sign of salvation, led to rapid economic expansion. The inability of the USSR to produce a pair of jeans comparable to America’s Levi’s 501 jeans was symptomatic of communism’s disregard of consumerism which led to its eventual downfall. These are just some of the perceptive examples he uses throughout the book. Ferguson postulates six reasons why the West became dominant: • the Scientific Revolution (all “the major 17th century breakthroughs in mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry and biology happened in Western Europe) • modern medicine (“nearly all the major 19th and 20th century breakthroughs in healthcare, including control of tropical diseases, were made by Western Europeans and North Americans”) • the Protestant or work ethic (the role of that principle in social and economic organization, in the expansion of literacy, and “sustained capital accumulation”) • competition • “the rule of law and representative government… based on property rights and the representation of property-owners in elected legislatures” (as shown by the differences in evolution between North and South American economies and political structures) • the consumer society (the Industrial Revolution created a supply of productivity-enhancing technologies to meet the demand for more and cheaper goods) Some more juicy examples of Ferguson’s analysis of societies: He is a fan of Edmund Burke, the Irish statesman and philosopher who predicted the French Revolution’s decent into depravity while America’s Revolution did not because of the magnitude of the war that engulfed France. He also discusses the pros and cons of colonization and the replacement of it with consumerism as represented by the meteoric rise of the Singer sewing machine. In terms of the Cold War, he says: “Yet the Cold War turned out to be about butter more than about guns, ballgames more than bombs…The problem for the Soviet Union was simple: the United States offered a far more attractive version of civilian life than the Soviets could.” The competition between churches in America for the saving of souls explains why there is a vast decline in Protestantism in Europe and a rise in Protestantism in America given that “Americans have experienced more or less the same social and cultural changes as Europeans” since the 1960s. Summing up, Ferguson examines the rise of China and the decline of the West with the pros and cons of that perception. He ends that discussion with optimism for the West and a challenge: “Yet this Western package [civilization] still seems to offer human societies the best available set economic, social and political institutions—the ones most likely to unleash the individual human creativity capable of solving the problems the twenty first century world faces. Over the past half-millennium, no civilization has done a better job of finding and educating the geniuses that lurk in the far right-hand tail of the distribution of talent in any human society. The big question is whether or not we are still able to recognize the superiority of that package…At its core, a civilization is the texts that are taught in its schools, learned by its students and recollected in times of tribulation… But what are the foundational texts of Western civilization that can bolster our belief in the almost boundless power of the free individual human being? And how good are we at teaching them, given our educational theorists’ aversion to formal knowledge and rote-learning? Maybe the real threat is posed not by the rise of China, Islam or CO2 emissions, but by our own loss of faith in the civilization we inherited from our ancestors.” This is a highly original and influential historical tome written by an erudite historian and economist about an economic system, capitalism, that has affected billions of people in positive ways throughout five centuries. Read it to understand how the world got to where it is today, what might be in store for it in the future, and how the West can retain the lead.

"Civilization" covers similar ground as The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers , Guns, Germs and Steel and The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor - albeit with considerably less depth and nuance than any of these works - in order to examine what has enabled "Western" economic and military superiority over other cultures and civilizations over the last 500 years or so, and determine if this era is about to end. "Civilization" appears to have been written with the sort of reading audience that doesn't normally consider these issues in depth in mind (and written somewhat hastily as well, it appears) - while I must admit there were a few unexpected surprises (I found the description of how totalitarian economies appear to recover rapidly from the Great Depression by suppressing consumption and forcing high rated of personal saving to be particularly clear and insightful, for example), it didn't appear to provide enough detail or context to satisfy the serious student/reader in international affairs (although it was enough to keep me occupied on a long international flight), or occasionally significantly overstated its case (just how important is a growth in Christianity within China? I would suggest somewhat less than what Ferguson claims). It would probably be interesting for the intelligent reader who hasn't been exposed to this sort of literature (or thought about these sorts of issues) before, and a worthwhile (albeit incomplete - reflecting a more slightly more "popular history" and less scholarly approach than even Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power or Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire . Oh, and did anybody else find the "killer apps" meme silly and distracting?

This is a fascinating book. How many others begin with a question posed by a character in Samuel Johnson's philosophic tale, RASSELAS? The question concerns the success and triumph of western ideas. Ferguson answers the question, using the argot of contemporary technology. The west utilized six 'killer apps': competition, science, private property, medicine, consumption and work (i.e. the work ethic). He examines each of these in six extended chapters and also provides pertinent examples. For example, under 'consumption' he gives the history of Levi's 501 jeans, talks about how they achieved cultural visibility and acclaim and then goes into the details of the soviet citizens' desire to acquire them. He poses superb questions. For example, how could the soviets replicate nuclear weapons technology but not be able to make a pair of denim jeans? He concludes with a chapter on the decline and fall of empires, providing the current theories along with traditional ones. While acknowledging that the process is complex he also cites numerous examples of how quickly and precipitously the fall came. (Now you see the Berlin wall; now you don't.) His (trenchant) conclusion with regard to our own society: ". . . the biggest threat to Western civilization is posed not by other civilizations, but by our own pusillanimity—and by the historical ignorance that feeds it" (p. 325). Amen. On the previous page in a kind of penultimate argument he notes that the foundational elements of a civilization are the texts that are taught in its schools, "learned by its students and recollected in times of tribulation" (p. 324). He offers a selection of such texts for us (including the King James Bible, Locke's Two Treatises of Government, Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations, Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France, Darwin's Origin of Species, Newton's Principia, selected speeches of Churchill and Lincoln and, preeminently, Shakespeare's complete works). If we examined the required curricula in our K-16 institutions we would search in vain for most of them. I remember when the Georgetown English dept. removed Shakespeare from the required list around thirty years ago and the pusillanimous president supported their action, doubtless in an attempt to curry politically-correct favor. The dept. plead that most students still elected to study Shakespeare, indicating that they were perhaps more responsible in planning their curriculum than the faculty had been. The writing is absolutely lucid; the scholarship is far-ranging and incisive. I was particularly struck by his intimate knowledge of Chinese, Arab, Inca and Aztec history. As I seem to say so often in these reviews, this book would make a superb 'common reading' for our first-year college students. There is virtually no likelihood that it would be so chosen. Highly recommended, five stars.

The elevator pitch for Niall Ferguson's "Civilization: The West and the Rest" is simple: Western civilization has risen to dominate world affairs over the last five hundred years, a record unmatched in world history and at odds with its population and geography relative to other countries and civilizations, due to six "killer apps" that have provided an advantage on the international stage. Further, it may be the West's loss of those same "apps" that is leading to decline now. Ferguson pegs the rise of the West to dominance at about the same time as the discovery of the Americas, and so, having just finished a look at that chapter of history in "1491" and "1493", I decided to take a closer look at Ferguson's argument. What was the secret of the West? And could we really be headed towards decline or collapse? Where many histories today focus on the specific "modules" of history, drilling down to look closely at specific persons or events (think Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" on Abraham Lincoln's political management or Horowitz's "Midnight Rising" on the John Brown raid at Harper's Ferry), Ferguson takes another tact by looking at the broad strokes of history to find themes, the grand "narratives" of history, as he calls them. Where other historians dig into the details, Ferguson wants to look at the big picture. As he explains in the preface: "Watching my three children grow up, I had the uneasy feeling that they were learning less history than I had learned at their age, not because they had bad teachers but because they had bad history books and even worse examinations. Watching the financial crisis [of the late 2000s] unfold, I realized that they were far from alone, for it seemed as if only a handful of people in the banks and treasuries of the Western world had more than the sketchiest information about the last Depression. For roughly thirty years, young people at Western schools and universities have been given the idea of a liberal education, without the substance of historical knowledge. They have been taught isolated `modules', not narratives, much less chronologies. They have been trained in the formulaic analysis of document excerpts, not in the key skill of reading widely and fast. They have been encouraged to feel empathy with imagined Roman centurions or Holocaust victims, not to write essays about why and how their predicaments arose." With that flippant, matter of fact, almost "devil-may-care" attitude then, Ferguson determines to take the reader through a grand narrative of the last five hundred years, identifying six "killer apps" that Western civilization adopted to rise to a dominance unmatched in breadth and duration in human history. It is this broad overview, as told in Ferguson's urgent and quick-witted voice, that makes the extended argument so interesting and in an age of multicultural relativism, refreshing. Welding his argument--not just about the cause of Western civilization's success, but also that "the historian can commune with the dead by imaginatively reconstructing their experiences" to inform and predict the future--Ferguson spins together the documents, events, and personalities to form a narrative, a story, about why the West succeeded in the face of larger, richer, and, at the onset, more wealthy civilizations. The "tools" to which he attributes the rise of the West are likened to "apps," downloadable software that augment computers and mobile devices. By looking at the narrative, Ferguson finds the roots of the West's success, as well as why, perhaps, the West as begun to decline while other civilizations advance. Not specific to the West, but, like the real world apps in the metaphor, the values can be "downloaded" by any culture for similar results, and in the closing Ferguson addresses the adaptation by non-Western cultures that have done, and are doing, just that with success. The "apps" Ferguson finds, while not necessarily surprising, are informative: competition, science, property rights, medicine, consumption and the birth of the "consumer society" ("without which the Industrial Revolution would have been unsustainable") and Max Weber's Protestant "work ethic". While the narrative is anything but chronological, Ferguson's grasp of history and the sweeping strokes with which he paints the narrative provide fascinating reading. One cannot sense, however, that Ferguson, almost anything but apologetic, is on the verge of glorying in the success of the British Empire during its hey-day as a colonial power, noting with statistical explanation the improvements brought to the world through Western influence, whether it be in medicine, literacy, and education. Or blue jeans, for in the end, one side effect of rise of the West is not diversity, but conformity as cultures imitate and emulate Western styles, habits, and philosophy. Ironically to this writer, who sees such deep and lasting value in the political institutions of the West, Ferguson notes that one area where the West has not been uniformly imitated is the political. "Only in the realm of political institutions does there remain significant global diversity, with a wide range of governments around the world resisting the idea of the rule of law, with its protection of individual rights, as the foundation for meaningful representative government." In other words, we'll take your blue jeans, your medicine, even your work ethic, but you can keep the Bill of Rights and representative government, they say. Indeed, it is that imitation of the West that has brought China from the depths of the Cultural Revolution to heights today when its economy can weather the financial crisis without more than a hiccup. After Ferguson's narrative through the six "apps", then, we reach the essential question suggested by any study of the West's rise: is the West now in decline? And if so, is it too late to reverse? Perhaps not. Although China's rise seems ominous, and indeed, Ferguson cites China's relative nonchalance towards doing business with the dictators and warlords of the world business "it's just business" as evidence that China is more concerned about rising than its popularity, China still faces problems that could arrest its progress, especially from social unrest, political pressure from its growing and unrepresented middle-class, or friction with its neighbors in Asia. Noting that a "retreat from the mountains of the Hindu Kush" (Afghanistan) seems to proceed the fall of any empire--be it Alexander's, British, Russian, or most recently American--Ferguson is unwilling to give up on the West, yet. No, the things that set the West apart are no longer distinct, but nor has the entire package of "apps" been embraced. "The Chinese have got capitalism. The Iranians have got science. The Russians have got democracy. The Africans are (slowly) getting modern medicine. And the Turks have got the consumer society. But what this means is that Western modes of operation are not in decline but are flourishing nearly everywhere, with only a few remaining pockets of resistance. A growing number of Resterners [Ferguson's name for non-Westerners] are sleeping, showering, dressing, working, playing, eating, drinking and travelling like Westerners. Moreover, as we have seen, Western civilization is more than just one thing; it is a package. It is about political pluralism (multiple states and multiple authorities) as well as capitalism; it is about the freedom of thought as well as the scientific method; it is about the rule of law and property rights as well as democracy. Even today, the West still has more of these institutional advantages than the Rest. The Chinese do not have political competition. The Iranians do not have freedom of conscience. They get to vote in Russia, but the rule of law there is a sham. In none of these countries is there a free press. These differences may explain why, for example, all three countries lag behind Western countries in qualitative indices that measure`national innovative development' and `national innovation capacity'." True, the West is not without its faults, he says, but our downfall will come from within, not from external pressure. It's the loss of the "killer apps" by our culture that will, in the long and short run, lead to our continued decline. Don't mistake the adoption, however, by others as the reason for the decline of the West. Rather, it is the West's abandonment of the values that brought them prominence that is leading to the decline. Here, again, Ferguson picks up the theme in his preface--we must learn from history. If we are to maintain the great values that gave the West its rise, we must study and learn the great works--the documents--that teach those values.* Add up all the values, and, like any follower of Churchill, it adds up to courage and action. "Today, as then [1938 and the German Nazi threat to Western civilization], the biggest threat to Western civilization is posed not by other civilizations, but by our own pusillanimity - and by the historical ignorance that feeds it." __________________________ * Ferguson's recommended "standard works" for Western civilization are: The King James Bible Isaac Newton's Principa John Locke's Two Treatises of Government Adam Smith's Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France Charles Darwin's Origin of the Species William Shakespeare's plays Selected speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill Also, if he could select only one of the above, it would be Shakespeare's collected works.

Excellent. The usual insightful and amazing Niall Ferguson! Covers all the main reasons for the ascendancy of Western civilization for the last 500 years! I would add “ Rule of Law” as one of the 6 most important reasons above consumer society and Medicine. This and “ Private Property Rights” are probably the two primary contributors to the economic Engine that propelled the West above the Rest for the previous 500 years. It remains to be seen if this trend continues! A must read for anyone who wants to move beyond the propaganda of modern day History and thought! Bravo Niall!!

El autor tiene más que el conocimiento necesario para haber hecho de esta obra algo más ambicioso, sin embargo, encuentra el balance perfecto entre el recuento de la historia y el tiempo limitado que tenemos los lectores para leer una obra de este tipo. Sin duda altamente recomendable.

Ferguson sets out to explain how and why, Western Civilization became the world`s dominate force. Ferguson also outlines, why other areas of the globe remained an economic backwater. Ferguson boils down the last five hundred years of western success, to a list of six essential components. Here is the list 1)Competition 2)Science 3)Property 4)Medicine 5)Consumption 6)Work Each ingredient has its own chapter. Ferguson then takes the reader through various historical lessons. These historic episodes help the reader understand, how these listed factors applied to western success. Some of the history will be very familiar to reader. I am also willing to bet, most readers will also discover a few new areas of history, that Ferguson uncovers. The conclusion of the book is all about how other countries, have started to apply western methods of success. Will the rise of strong Asian economies eclipse the growth of the west? This book should really be part one of a series. Part two could be all about how current western societies, have moved away from the six factors of economic prosperity. One caution I may make to a prospective reader of this book. The over all theme is a somewhat Libertarian message. This will be the deciding factor, in your potential enjoyment of the book.

Excellent! Ferguson explains the mechanics of the western successes since xvi century and allows to everyone to reflect on the Western weaknesses of the present focusing on our apparent and traditional sthrenghts

とても読みやすく、日本人の書いた歴史の概観でなく西洋からの世界史の視点が新鮮でした。すでに邦訳出ていますが、英語はとても読みやすい、ユーモアにあふれる表現です。近現代史を新たな視点で見る、歴史を英語で話す必要性のある人にも最適です。

It's always a pleasure to read and/or view Niall Ferguson's books and/or DVD-TV-series of the products of his mind. His is a highly knowledgeable intellect, beside knowing how to use the tools (the passion for the subject, the persuasion of his arguments, the gripping description of the historical events as if they weren't presented by a gifted historian but by an experienced mystery writer) to capture the attention of the reader/viewer. I highly recommend to read this book which, together with his "The Ascent of Money", passionately describes the road the Western World travelled to create our present civilization. What's up to us now, is to establish a truly peaceful and productive human society. To do so, please read, added to Niall Ferguson's mentioned books, "ABUNDANCE, the future is better than you think," by Peter H. Diamandis & Steven Kotler," "MERCHANTS of DESPAIR," by Robert Zubrin," and "DECONVERTED," by Seth Andrews and add them to Ayn Rand's Philosophy of Objectivism. Hours of intense awareness and fruitful reading pleasure expect you, as you run through pages upon pages of fascinating writings that will capture your full attention.