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Civilization

The West and the Rest

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Civilization

Written by: Niall Ferguson
Narrated by: Niall Ferguson
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The rise to global predominance of Western civilization is the single most important historical phenomenon of the past five hundred years. All over the world, an astonishing proportion of people now work for Western-style companies, study at Western-style universities, vote for Western-style governments, take Western medicines, wear Western clothes, and even work Western hours. Yet six hundred years ago the petty kingdoms of Western Europe seemed unlikely to achieve much more than perpetual internecine warfare. It was Ming China or Ottoman Turkey that had the look of world civilizations. How did the West overtake its Eastern rivals? And has the zenith of Western power now passed?

In Civilization: The West and the Rest, bestselling author Niall Ferguson argues that, beginning in the fifteenth century, the West developed six powerful new concepts that the Rest lacked: competition, science, the rule of law, consumerism, modern medicine, and the work ethic.

©2011 Niall Ferguson (P)2011 Tantor Americas Anthropology United States World Middle Ages Latin America Imperialism Western Europe Capitalism Socialism Self-Determination Africa Social justice Ottoman Empire China Iran War Refugee Russia Medicine Soviet Union Colonial Period Middle East Law Military Interwar Period
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What the critics say

"Thought-provoking and possibly controversial." ( Library Journal)
All stars
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This book is one of the top 3 I’ve ever read. I prefer non-fiction and it’s hard to find a book (especially an audiobook) with this much information that’s not prohibitively dry. It’s a must-read for anyone who wants to better understand the world around us and I will be listening to it again soon.

Brilliant book

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This book was recommended by a lecturer in Egypt within a series of lectures about what truly caused the decline and ultimate collapse of the Muslim empire. The author has a lot of insight into the rise of the west and the decline of the rest, and his theory about the “six killer apps” that led to the ascendancy of the west is probably the only one that I can think of that holds any merit.
The author himself narrates the book, and his performance is superb and kept me engaged throughout.
However, the reason for the less than five stars is his apparent bias against Muslims, which is visible in many sections of the book. He also erroneously relayed a particular myth about the Ottoman Empire to emphasise the decadence of the later decades of the Ottomans. That particular myth has been discredited repeatedly since it was written in a paper by an orientalist, who never bothered to include a citation or a source for their story.
The author also neglected to mention the atrocities committed by colonial powers in their pursuit of the scientific revolution, and only made a minor reference to it in the conclusion of the book.
There’s more that can be said in refutation of some of his suggestions, but overall the book did a great job in explaining the West’s rise to power and is very highly recommended.

Great insight

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Lover the performance by the author of the book. I do find it puzzling that they did quotes in an accent similar to original person who made the quote. I find myself wondering if narrator did the accents himself though.

Excellent performance by the author

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Really loved it. A whirlwind tour of global history and how it impacts today's reality...

Amazing book on so many levels

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I bet the author is fascinating if you meet him in person, his digressions and diversions can be very interesting - but there were times it was truly irriating in the book when you really wanted him to get back to his point.

His ideology did not appeal to me, this was a very pro British colonisation, pro Capitalist point of view. And he completely ignored situations or even countries that did not fit his sweeping generalisations (especially his epilogue - India is the complete opposite of this claims, yet was only mentioned, not discussed).

This is only about 15 years old, yet felt dated.

Dated history book, cherry picked examples

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