Niall Ferguson
Civilization: The West and The Rest
ISBN: 978-1-59420-305-3
Why have European countries and their descendants seen such explosive growth in technology and knowledge over the past 500 years or so? Why has the rest of the world seemingly lagged behind? Prior to the late 1400s, this wasn’t the case – other parts of the world were advanced well beyond any European countries. Why did this change?
I love studying history. As Winston Churchill wrote, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Anyone interested in leadership or management should have a basic grasp on the history of major cultures – you don’t need to remember when minor kings ruled small principalities, but wrapping your mind around the biggest events and understanding the ruling styles of major leaders is part of the foundation necessary to lead. I don’t review a lot of history books on this blog, but I thought Civilization: The West and The Rest fit into this series because of the deep dive regarding why other civilizations failed to thrive in the past half-millennium.
The author narrowed down six areas that helped Western Civilization succeed while other civilizations floundered: competition, science, property (specifically property rights), medicine, consumption, and work (specifically work ethic.) Ferguson posited that it takes all six of these for a civilization to prosper – missing one or more of these characteristics causes stagnation or failure. Competition tends to breed innovation – so many different groups of people crammed together on the European continent fostered a great deal of competition between rivals. A focus on science (and, by extension medicine) was necessary to fix many of the problems caused by urbanization and rapid population growth. As the ability to own property spread and the consumer economy created jobs, wealth increased. To round everything out, the rise of Protestant work ethic helped Europeans to branch out and build new civilizations across the world.
Several civilizations had a major head start on the Europeans. The Chinese had the ability to travel great distances by sea and had great wealth prior to 1500. Short-sighted leadership pulled the plug on exploration and, shortly after, Europeans seeking goods and riches across the world were knocking on China’s door rather than the other way around. During the Dark Ages of Europe, the Middle East was the cradle of knowledge and research. However, the Ottomans greatly overextended themselves and collapsed both from within and without.
Short-sighted leadership and collapse seem to be themes of our current situation in the West. Many believe that our current government has become too large and unwieldy to continue functioning, and many decisions regarding foreign and domestic policy are contingent on winning the next election and keeping a political party in power. Many point to the rise of China in the past 30 years or so and worry that the West will not be able to keep up with a new foe. However, China does not demonstrate proficiency in all six areas listed by Ferguson – property rights in the western sense are nearly non-existent in communist China and the consumption level of the Chinese population are still not comparable with their European and American equivalents. With time, however, this may change.
Overall, 8/10, would recommend to anyone interested in the rise of Western Civilization over the past 500 years and the current global dynamic, including the rise of China over the past several decades. I found this to be an incredibly interesting read – prior to reading this, I had not seen these ideas distilled as well as Ferguson did in this text. Just as Europe overtook the rest of the world, civilizations outside of the West could still overtake us if we become complacent. This main message one should grasp from the text is that success is not guaranteed, and maintenance is required to remain the leader. Our leaders need to learn from the past and look beyond themselves and their own power for the benefit of the people they serve.