Niall Ferguson

From the bestselling author of The Ascent of Money and The Square and the Tower
“A dazzling history of Western ideas.” —The Economist
“Mr. Ferguson tells his story with characteristic verve and an eye for the felicitous phrase.” —Wall Street Journal
“[W]ritten with vitality and verve . . . a tour de force.” —Boston...

A bestselling historian shows how the British Empire created the modern world, in a book lauded as "a rattling good tale" (Wall Street Journal) and "popular history at its best" (Washington Post) The British Empire was the largest in all history: the nearest thing to global domination ever achieved. The world we know today is in large measure the product of Britain's Age of Empire. The global spread of capitalism, telecommunications, the English...

"Most history is hierarchical: it's about emperors, presidents, prime ministers and field marshals. It's about states, armies and corporations. It's about orders from on high. Even history "from below" is often about trade unions and workers' parties. But what if that's simply because hierarchical institutions create the archives that historians rely on? What if we are missing the informal, less well documented social networks that are the true sources...

A definitive portrait of the American statesman, based on unprecedented access to his private papers, challenges common misconceptions to trace Kissinger's beliefs to philosophical idealism.

Bestselling author, economist and historian Niall Ferguson takes a look at how money evolved, from the concept of credit and debt in the Renaissance to the emergence of a global economy and the subprime crisis we face today.

"From a beat reporter at the Washington Post to an overnight sensation as the leader of the New Journalism movement, Tom Wolfe was at the forefront of reshaping how American stories are told. Recognizing the importance of overlooked subcultures and communities, Wolfe documented everything from rural stock car drivers to hippies in Haight Ashbury to the Apollo Astronauts, and his ability to bridge cultural and class divides while tackling stories central...

"As it absorbs data, gains agency, and intermediates between humans and reality, AI (Artificial Intelligence) will help us to address enormous crises, from climate change to geopolitical conflicts to income inequality. It might well solve some of the greatest mysteries of our universe and elevate the human spirit to unimaginable heights. But it will also pose challenges on a scale and of an intensity that we have never seen--usurping our power of...

The West once ruled more than half the world. The religion it exported, Christianity, is still followed by a third of mankind. Above all, the way people live, or aspire to live, are unmistakably an invention of the West. All over the world, more and more humans eat a Western diet, wear Western clothes and live in Western housing. Niall Ferguson explains how by juxtaposing, we can uncover the keys, the six killer applications, of Western ascendancy....