Civilization

Niall Ferguson asks how the small, warring kingdoms of Western Europe, which in the fifteenth century looked like backwaters beside Ming China and the Ottoman Empire, came to dominate the rest of the world for most of the next 500 years. His answer is six killer applications the West developed and the Rest lacked, among them competition, science, modern medicine, consumerism and the work ethic. He shows how a dozen Western empires came to rule three-fifths of humanity and four-fifths of the world economy, and asks whether the West has now lost its monopoly on these advantages. The narrative ranges from the Grand Canal at Nanjing and Machu Picchu to Shark Island in Namibia and the secret churches of Wenzhou.

Rupert Murdoch said he could not wait to start it and expected it to give plenty to think about.