3 Review(s)

Civilization: The West And The Rest is an excellent book by bestselling author Niall Ferguson and aims to highlight the six factors that have been responsible for the rise and fall of empires. Summary Of The Book Civilization: The West And The Rest is a book that helps readers understand the reasons why great civilizations fall and what it takes to create one that is truly lasting. In order to reinforce his points, he takes the example of the eastern and western civilizations in the fifteenth century. If the current situation of the world was to be predicted from the situation that was existent in the year 1411, one would have easily assumed that the oriental world would be the dominating power. However, that was not the way things turned out, because the western world managed to surpass the oriental world and dominate it. Ferguson then goes on to state the reasons why such a turnaround happened even after the oriental world seemed to have all that was required to be the dominant power. The readers are taken on a virtual journey around the world, from the Grand Canal to Machu Picchu and from Prague to Wenzhou. They are also familiarized with the political and economic situations that were existent in different parts of the world in the fifteenth century. In Civilization: The West And The Rest, the author helps the readers get acquainted with the six factors that caused the rise and dominance of the western world. These are identified as work ethics, consumerism, science, medicine, competition, and democracy. Ferguson states that the development of these concepts helped the western world progress faster, and dominate the rest of the world. However, he questions the fact that the western world is still in a position of dominance. He believes that the western world can only remain in absolute control if it has complete control in these six areas. If the oriental world is able to tap into these concepts, it will soon be able to destroy the monopoly of the west over the rest of the world. About Niall Ferguson The author of this book, Niall Campbell Douglas Ferguson, is a renowned historian, hailing from Glasgow, Scotland. Some of the books written by the author include The Ascent Of Money: A Financial History Of The World, Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World, and Colossus: The Rise & Fall of the American Empire. The author was born on the 18th of April 1964, and was educated at The Glasgow Academy. Following that, he completed his degree in History from Magdalen College, Oxford, receiving first-class honours, after which he pursued his D.Phil from the same university in the year 1989. In the year 2004, he was ranked among the top 100 influential individuals in the modern world, by Time magazine.