Why The West Rules – For Now: The Patterns of History and what they reveal about the Future [Hardcover]

`A great work of synthesis and argument, drawing together an awesome range of materials and authorities' --Andrew Marr

`The nearest thing to a unified field theory of history we are ever likely to get ... I loved it.' --Niall Ferguson

'Deeply thought-provoking and engagingly lively, broad in sweep and precise in detail.'
--Jonathan Fenby, author of The Penguin History of Modern China, former Editor of The Observer and former Editor of the South China Morning Post

`Ian Morris has returned history to the position it once held ... His vision is dazzling, and his prose irresistible.'
--Anthony Pagden, distinguished professor of political science and history at the University of California, Los Angeles, author of `Worlds and War: The 2,500 Year Struggle Between East and West'

`At last - a brilliant historian with a light touch. We should all rejoice.' --John Julius Norwich

`Astonishing ... hundreds of pages of the latest information dealing with every aspect of change' --David S. Landes, author of The Wealth and Poverty of Nations

`Formidable, richly engrossing ... A superior contribution to the grand-theory-of-human-history genre' --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

`Remarkable ... Anyone who does not believe there are lessons to be learned from history should start here.' --The Economist

`Morris is the world's most talented historian... he has brilliantly pulled off what few modern academics would dare to attempt' --Niall Ferguson, Foreign Affairs

`Read, learn, and enjoy!' -- Jared Diamond

`So important...one doffs one's hat to Morris's breadth, ambition and erudition'
-- Paul Kennedy, Sunday Times

`Morris handles huge ideas and transglobal theories with a breathtaking ease and humour.'
--Artemis Cooper, Evening Standard

`A path-breaking work that lays out what modern history should look like.' -- Financial Times

'A writer of such breathtaking vision and scope as to make him fit to be ranked alongside the likes of Jared Diamond and David Landes' - Professor Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, Cambridge University 'Here you have three books wrapped into one: an exciting novel that happens to be true; an entertaining but thorough historical account of everything important that happened to any important people in the last 10 millennia; and an educated guess about what will happen in the future. Read, learn, and enjoy!' Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography, UCLA, and Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Collapse, and Natural Experiments of History

Why does the West rule? Eminent Stanford polymath Ian Morris answers this provocative question, drawing uniquely on 20,000 years of history and archaeology, and the methods of social science.

Why did British boats shoot their way up the Yangzi in 1842, rather than Chinese ones up the Thames? Why do Easterners use English more than Europeans speak in Mandarin or Japanese? To put it bluntly, why does the West rule? There are two schools of thought: the 'Long-Term Lock In' theory, suggesting some sort of inevitability, and the 'Short-Term Accident' theory. But both approaches have misunderstood the shape of history. Ian Morris presents a startling new theory. He explains with flair and authority why the paths of development differed in the East and West and - analysing a vicious twist in trajectories just ahead of us - predicts when the West's lead will come to an end. 'Here you have three books wrapped into one: an exciting novel that happens to be true; an entertaining but thorough historical account of everything important that happened to any important people in the last 10 millennia; and an educated guess about what will happen in the future. Read, learn, and enjoy!' Jared Diamond 'A great work of synthesis and argument, drawing together an awesome range of materials and authorities to bring us a fresh, sharp reading of East-West relationships.' Andrew Marr

'An exciting novel that happens to be true ... Read, learn and enjoy!' Jared Diamond 'A work of synthesis and argument' Andrew Marr 'A grand theory of history that can be compared meaningfully with those of Toynbee and Marx' John Gray, New Statesman 'Brilliant' Martin Wolf, Financial Times Why does the West rule? And with the rise of China and India, how long will its power last? In this critically-acclaimed bestseller, eminent historian and archaeologist Ian Morris provides provocative answers. Morris explains that only by exploring the whole of human civilisation can we see why develoment differed in East and West. And only when we know this story - told here with unique flair and authority - can we predict the impact of the astonishing changes that face us. A gripping and truly original history of the world, based on the latest research across disciplines from ancient history to neuroscience, Why the West Rules -For Now is already a modern classic. 'Perhaps the smartest and sanest guide to thwe twenty-first century so far' South China Morning Post 'Remarkable' Economist --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Born and educated in Britain, Ian Morris is Willard Professor of Classics, Professor of History and a fellow of the Archaeology Centre at Stanford University. He has written and edited a number of academic books, most recently The Greeks and The Ancient Economy and has appeared on a number of television networks, including the History Network and PBS. This is his first trade book.