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The New York Times bestselling book Civilisation has been adapted into a series of BBC television programmes. Time magazine recognised its author as one of the most influential people in the world.

Topic

History, culture, politics, economics, civilisations, the West.

About the book

Neil Ferguson.

Neil Ferguson notes: «At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the idea that the West would dominate the rest of the world for the next five centuries would have seemed very strange. And yet, it happened... And today, the power of the West amazes even the richest imagination... So why did this happen? Why did Europe, which in the 1500s was inferior to the East in many respects - economic, technological, demographic - manage to make a sharp breakthrough and achieve undisputed world domination? What are the components of the success of Western civilisation? These are the thorny questions that Niall Ferguson boldly, sometimes even defiantly, but nevertheless extremely fascinatingly addresses.

Who is the book for

For anyone interested in history, politics, economics.

Why is this book about

The author sees the problem of the

The author sees the problem of the modern generation in the fragmentary knowledge of the past, so he offers a holistic history of the world. He describes how competition, the development of science and medicine, mass consumption, and work ethic helped the West expand its wealth, influence, and power. He also discusses the consequences of other countries borrowing Western norms and how long the West will maintain its leadership position in the world.

About the author

Neil Ferguson is a prominent British historian, journalist, Harvard professor, senior fellow at Oxford and Stanford. He is the author of 14 books, including the bestsellers The Rise of Money and Empire, an editor at Bloomberg Television, and a columnist for Newsweek.

Reviews of the book

«An unrivalled history of ideas invented in the West.

The Economist

«This book is extremely polemical and timely. Ferguson gets down to business with his usual insight, without losing sight of the sophistication of his style. He concludes with the thesis that the West's greatest threat is not China, but the West itself: a timidity nurtured by its own ignorance, a foolishness born of a misunderstanding of its own heritage. Ferguson is right, but he proves that things can still be fixed."

The Financial Times

«Ferguson provides a bold analysis of a six-hundred-year stratum of world history. In his hands, the history lesson becomes vivid, compelling, meaningful and understandable."

Kirkus

Quotes

On the meaning of history

The past is our only reliable source of knowledge about the fluid present and the many futures ahead, only one of which has yet to happen. History is not the study of the past, it is the study of time itself.

On the role of travelling to Africa

Da Gama set sail on 8 July 1497. When four months later he and his Portuguese companions rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, they were not concerned with what exotic animals to bring back for the king [as the Chinese emperor wanted]. They wanted to know if they would be lucky in what others had failed to do - open a new route for spices. They wanted trade, not tribute.

On the differences in height

The average height of English prisoners in the eighteenth century reached 170 centimetres. The average height of Japanese soldiers in the same period did not exceed 158 centimetres91. At a time when the East came face to face with the West, they could no longer look each other in the eye as equals.

On the differences in the European colonisation of the Americas

These two ships [from Spain and England] symbolise the history of the two Americas. On one of them there are conquistadors, on the other there are hired servants. On one ship, they dreamed of instant plunder and mountains of Mayan gold. On the other, they knew that years of hard work were ahead of them, but the reward for it would be the most attractive property in the world: first of all, the lands of North America, and in addition, participation in lawmaking. Real ownership and representation - that was the North American dream.

On the Asian Empire

With the right institutions and technology, not to mention the right clothes, an Asian empire could defeat any European country. One economic prognosticator predicted in 1910 that Japan would overtake even Britain by the end of the century, and it did: In 1980, Japan's GDP per capita exceeded Britain's for the first time. Sadly, however, from 1910 to 1980, British GDP growth remained unchanged.