Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I question the purpose of the book. Go ahead and try to demarcate on the world map, what the west looks to you versus east. It’ll be a pretty crazy map if you tried to follow this book. Most likely it will be the great British empire on one side and maybe the US and everyone else on the other.
Throughout the book the author cherry picked historical facts to prove a point he was trying to make. Civilization did not start in the 15th century and neither did innovation start then. The Chinese invented Gunpowder. The Mongols were not barbarians, they were the greatest & smartest warriors as were the Huns and Tartars. There is a lot of facts the author needs to learn and interpretation of facts is certainly not this author’s forte. Niall Ferguson is British and perhaps he has been reading too much Rudyard Kipling….
Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat.
Well that is just not true, You can sit on your high horse and say that but the east and west has been meeting for ever, in Greece, Egypt, ancient Persia, India…… Learn your history and in case you want to learn it from this author, take it with a grain of salt.