One of the most interesting books I’ve read in recent years was Niall Ferguson‘s Civilization: The West and the Rest, an examination of the extraordinary rise of Western Civilization relative to the rest of the world and the causes that seem to be at the root of its apparent decline. Ferguson’s newest book–The Great Degeneration: […]
Review | The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die by Niall Ferguson
October 28, 2013 by
Best Non-fiction Reads of 2012
January 4, 2013 by
Last year was a great year for good books. I tend to prefer history over other topics, but this year’s non-fiction picks included sociology, economics, and literature…but all, still, with a link to history.
In no particular order, then, my favorite non-fiction reads of 2012 are…
Book Review: “Civilization: the West and the Rest” by Niall Ferguson
May 23, 2012 by
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.
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