Civilization: The West and the Rest

Many of the observations in “Civilization: The West and the Rest” will not win Ferguson friends among the fashionable in today's academy.
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By creating an account, you acknowledge that PBS may share your information with our member stations and our respective service providers, and that you have read and understand the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Favorite Add to Favorites. The two-part series examines Niall Ferguson's six principles of prosperity: For the past five centuries, Western power has prevailed around the world. What led the West to be so influential? And how long will the West sustain its supremacy? Visit The Official Website. Learn More about PBS online sponsorship.

Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson: review

The West and the Rest with Niall Ferguson. Civilization Hour 2 - Preview. Airs Tuesday, March 11, at 9: Check your local listings. Niall Ferguson discusses the clock as a metaphor for the shift of global power.

According to the historian, Western civilisation's rise to global dominance is the single most important historical phenomenon of the past five centuries. All around the world, more and more people study at Western-style universities, work for Western-style companies, vote for Western-style governments, take Western medicines, wear Western clothes, and play Western sports.

Yet six hundred years ago the kingdoms of Western Europe seemed like miserable backwaters, ravaged by incessant war and pestilence.


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It was Ming China or Ottoman Turkey that had the look of world civilisations. How did the West overtake its Eastern rivals? And has the zenith of Western power now passed? Is the West history? These were the "killer apps" that allowed the West to go ahead of the Rest; opening global trade routes, exploiting new scientific knowledge , evolving representative government , increasing life expectancy , unleashing the industrial revolution , and hugely increasing human productivity.

Civilization - Is The West History: Episode 01 Competition

Civilization shows exactly how a dozen Western empires came to control three-fifths of mankind and four-fifths of the world economy. However, Ferguson argues that the days of Western predominance are numbered because the Rest have finally downloaded the six killer apps the West once monopolised — while the West has literally lost faith in itself.

Yet the lead that China had established in technology was not to be translated into sustained economic growth. In China a monolithic empire stifled colonial expansion and economic innovation. In Europe political division bred competition. The question for our own time is whether or not we have lost that competitive edge to a rapidly ascending Asia. Ferguson asks why the Islamic world didn't participate in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment , and if the West is still capable of maintaining its scientific lead at a time when educational attainment in science subjects is declining.

However, Niall Ferguson asks whether North and South are converging today, linguistically and economically. The imperialists talked of their civilizing mission, but their rivalry ultimately caused world wars that endangered the West's global dominance. Today, have Western aid agencies learned lessons from the past?

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Or is China in the process of building a new African empire? We dress the same; we want the same latest technological kit; we drive the same cars. But where did this uniformity come from? The answer is the combination of the industrial revolution and the consumer society.

Originating in UK but flourishing most spectacularly in United States, the advent of mass consumption has changed the way the world worked.


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  • Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson – review?

Led by the Japanese, one non-Western society after another has adopted the same model, embracing the Western way of manufacturing and consuming. Only the Muslim world has resisted. But how long can the burkha hold out against Levi's? Niall Ferguson examines whether we are now seeing the first effective challenge to the global dominance of Western consumerism. The question is why that ethic seems now to be fading in the West. Europeans no longer work long hours, and Americans have almost given up saving completely.

The real workers and savers in the world are now the heirs of Confucius , not Calvin.