Civilization by Niall Ferguson

Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Niall Ferguson, the clever British historian-author, indeed has the gift of explaining things. In "Civilization", he looks at the "West" as we know it (both as a culture as well as the socio-economic state that it is) and the "Rest" - the erstwhile colonies, 3rd world countries, South American countries, etc. and tries to see what sets the "West" apart.
The book starts with a peek at the world in the beginning of the 16th century - when Asian cities were not just the largest but also the much more prosperous than the cities of "West" like London. So what happened in a span of 500 years that turned things completed around. Then, as Ferguson walks down the paths of history, he proposes six "killer applications" that help the "West" get where it is and these are i) Competition, ii) Science, iii) Medicine, iv) Property rights and legislation v) Consumerism and vi) the Work Ethic.
Each of the six arguments are brilliant, no doubt. The problem with the book is that Ferguson tries too hard. What could have been a superlative 100-page essay is dragged to over 325 pages allowing the author to ramble away throwing in bits of interesting, but seemingly unrelated, historical notes. A bigger problem is that his justification is not consistent: To prove one point, he picks up a particular set of players (say, Ming dynasty in China vs. British colonizers) but completely drops these players for the next point. I am not saying I was expecting his arguments to be universal, but the point is that Ferguson spends thousands of describing the subtleties of the social condition of the players - which is a complete waste of ink and the readers' time. For instance, I do not see why should I read all about French colonization in Senegal when the topic is about Medicine - what happened to the Italian and British pioneers of medicine?
Also, the book tries to extrapolate, in patches, to apply history to future - using several references of how civilizations are cyclic in nature and death feeds new life and stuff. What is the point? If I need to read speculation and "connect-the-dots" kind of literature - I will pick up whatever Malcolm Gladwell or Steven D. Levitt print next.
Not really impressed beyond the base point of the book - the six "killer apps" that worked in the West.