Civilization: The West and the Rest

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 BibleIsaac Newton's PrincipaJohn Locke's Two Treatises of GovernmentAdam Smith's Moral Sentiments and Wealth of NationsEdmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in FranceCharles Darwin's Origin of the SpeciesWilliam Shakespeare's playsSelected speeches of Abraham Lincoln and Winston ChurchillAlso, if he could select only one of the above, it would be Shakespeare's collected works.

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 .

The Civilization and the 6 killer apps of western power is an interesting book which examines the factors that have given the West superiority. The book is backed by thorough research and arguments that are valid in general.The “competition section” is mostly compared with China, which is valid. The “science section” is mainly discussed using Ottoman Turks case (Turkey came to exist from mid fifteenth century) and ignores the scientific base established in the east much earlier.The “properties section” mostly discussed the success of North America against South America. The “Medicine Section” discussed the majority of the atrocities committed against European colonies in Africa to improve medicine. Among the atrocities, the author thoroughly discusses the Herero and Nama case during 1906/07, where 80% of the population was killed (about 60,000 people in the Herero case). However, the author misses the atrocities and Genocide committed against the Christian Armenian case in western Armenia during 1915/16, where 1.5 million people died by Ottoman Turks. At the end of the medicine section, it is nicely concluded as to why colonization has to change into consumption so that the West to remain in control of the colonies. The “consumption section”, a better name for which would have been Globalization of the western product, is nicely discussed (specifically the impact of jeans in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe). Finally, there is the “Work section”, which discusses the impact of religion on work ethic. A bit complicated and mixed opinion. Although, there is no conclusion in this section, I strongly believe that it was Christianly that brought civilization to the West and gave them superiority against the rest of the world.I believe that some other factors that were worth mentioning include Energy and Water. It was by provision of these resources that the West managed to increase productivity performance after the Industrial revolution (agriculture and manufacturing). All in all, I strongly recommend this book to everyone. Thank you, Mr Niall Ferguson, for this wonderful book.

I don’t think Niall Ferguson has ever written a book that I haven’t enjoyed reading or learned a great deal from. Civilization, like all the others, is no different. An excellent, easy readable text that I would highly recommend.I hope you find my review helpful.

an excellent background and insight into how and why the modern world functions and looks today. Very readable and not too heavy on details to keep it light, broad and interesting without getting too bogged down at any point. very enjoyable to establish the context to the current global situation but probably slightly light and general on the possible future directions of the 'west'.

I found this book, "The West and the Rest" to be an incredibly and worthwhile insight into Western pre-eminence in the modern era. I have learned about historical events that shaped the modern world - no small feat to distill the salient historical factors into one book. I would not agree entirely with all of the author's contentions, but I would highly commend the book to anyone interested in the evolution of Western society.

Intersting and readable but some of his data assembly is curious. Was the situation in post revolutionary France different from newly independent USA because of his 'Apps' or because the situation in the two countries before the events were completely different? Were French and British styles of colonisation of Africa so very different? The whole 'Killer Apps' thing seems to be just a marketing gimmick and, as with other pronouncements by Ferguson, the conclusions he reaches don't seem to be a logical follow on from the data presented.