- MP3 CD Library Binding
- Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc; Unabridged edition (29 Nov 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1400169984
- ISBN-13: 978-1400169986
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13.5 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 926,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Why The West Rules--For Now
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Review
"'A provocative and extraordinary contribution to wide-screen comparative history... a true banquet of ideas' (Boyd Tonkin, Independent) 'An important book - one that challenges, stimulates and entertains. Anyone who does not believe there are lessons to be learned from history should start here' (Economist) 'Perhaps the smartest and sanest guide to the twenty-first century so far' (South China Morning Post)"
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Review
'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
--This text refers to the
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
72 of 76 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Like most of us living in the West I have have pondered this question from time to time. Why did the west come out in front, and will it last? Should we all start learning Chinese? And was it inevitable - were Westerners more open-minded, or harder working, or were we just super-lucky to have had the industrial revolution? Or was it simply the work of exceptional people such as Julius Caesar, James Watt or Columbus?
Morris looks at this from a different angle. He uses an index of social development to analyse how societies have risen and fallen (including energy capture, organisation/urbanisation, war-making and information technology). But most importantly he tells a brilliant story of global history. It's a big book, but it has to be, to cover its full scope.
Part history, part archaeology, part geography, part biology and part sociology it is the work of a real polymath. It's incredibly readable too, beginning with a terrific fantasy of how things might have been. I didn't agree with all of it but it's still the best history book I've read this year. You may guess that I felt stongly about this book.
Morris looks at this from a different angle. He uses an index of social development to analyse how societies have risen and fallen (including energy capture, organisation/urbanisation, war-making and information technology). But most importantly he tells a brilliant story of global history. It's a big book, but it has to be, to cover its full scope.
Part history, part archaeology, part geography, part biology and part sociology it is the work of a real polymath. It's incredibly readable too, beginning with a terrific fantasy of how things might have been. I didn't agree with all of it but it's still the best history book I've read this year. You may guess that I felt stongly about this book.
32 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Was just given this by a friend last week and have already finished it. I have to say this is the best non-fiction book I've read this year. I found it completely riveting, right from the introduction which is written as though the Chinese had triumphed over England in Victorian times rather than the reverse. That's just the start of Morris' investigation into why it didn't happen like that, and in fact why it is so hard to imagine this ever having been on the cards.
His theory involves going back 15,000 years and tracing the progress of East and West since then. He then uses this analysis to look ahead to the future - which is pretty scary.Obviously it's a very ambitious theory and I'm sure it could be quite controversial, but Niall Ferguson says he's the world's most talented historian and I can't disagree. If you want to understand the story behind the global socio-economic landscape we live in today, read this book!
His theory involves going back 15,000 years and tracing the progress of East and West since then. He then uses this analysis to look ahead to the future - which is pretty scary.Obviously it's a very ambitious theory and I'm sure it could be quite controversial, but Niall Ferguson says he's the world's most talented historian and I can't disagree. If you want to understand the story behind the global socio-economic landscape we live in today, read this book!
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Morris manages his book like a composer orchestrating complex themes. Like music, the blend of ideas makes logical and aesthetic sense. Yet the book is not full of its own worthiness; it is often humorous, often vernacular, always well-read and always accessible. The short chapter sections (with witty headings) lead you to read this episodically, so it could be an ideal bed-side book. Above all, it is a cogent analysis of history from a true polymath who sees the horizon as much as the ground under his feet; even if you do not buy the analysis, it is a stimulus to thinking about global development in ways you had not previously contemplated.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The West But Not As We Know It
The author sets out, as seems to be almost de rigeur in some academic quarters, to overturn or deconstruct popular assumptions about Western civilisation at a time when others... Read more
Published 4 months ago by BGD
Why The West Rules - For Now
A very detailled book with a lot of startling insights into the early human history. A must for any history buff with the sufficient time at hand to read through this abundance of... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Peter Brechbühler
American/English
This book is written in American making it extremely difficult for someone who is not American to read, due to the significant language differences between American and English,... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Taya77
More than the title suggests.
In constructing his views on West versus East, Ian Morris weaves a tapestry of long-term history that includes a multitude of fascinating and sometimes obscure facts and figures,... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Orcop Peter
A good argument but a pithy end
You could sum this book up as explaining in practical terms what Hegel means by all of human history being nothing more than a record of the unfolding of the human mind. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Chrisjp
A detailed, formidable history of political, scientific and social...
This panoramic history is formidable reading about the comparative development of Western and Eastern civilizations. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Rolf Dobelli
Greedy, lazy and fearful...until now, apparently...
This is an awesome tome of a book, and a thrilling project, to attempt to bring insights from the worlds of archeology and history to bear on our understanding of modern times. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Dr. G. SPORTON
Interesting but flawed
This book is a very good read. Ian Morris' provides an interesting and thought-provoking approach to the history of the world. Read more
Published 12 months ago by M Navarro
Excellently written narrative, but deriverative content.
Why the West Rules for Now is a tour de force of history. Or to be more specific of Chinese and 'western' history (in that order). Read more
Published 12 months ago by James B. Lamond
Diagnostically great; prognostically doubtful!
Somewhat rarely, a history book which is not only fascinating, but also genuinely liberal (with a small "l"). Read more
Published 12 months ago by Mrs. E. G. Brown
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