Disappointing. The overall theme of the book is enlightening. The division into the West's "killer apps" is thought-provoking. (The six killer apps of the West, which led the West to preeminence while the Rest stagnated, are: Competition (small competing states in Europe vs. huge empires in the East); Science (kabosh put on science in Arabia, China, while Europe forged ahead); Property (private property in North America, widely distributed and alienable, a key to prosperity); Medicine (longer and more certain lives); Consumption (as producers realized that the key to growth was providing goods for their own workers--a virtuous circle); and Work (specifically, the Protestant work ethic).

So I was hoping for some profound revelation near the end, but when talking about the work ethic, he starts blasting the free-love culture of the 1960s, blaming the West's downfall on hippies and such. And then he goes on about how important it is for us all to be Protestants. Once we lose our One True Faith, we lose the work ethic, and the Chinese (who are becoming Protestants in large numbers, says Niall) eat our lunch.

And so Niall turned into a crank, and I lost all respect for his thesis. Or maybe half my respect. This is still a damned interesting history book. And I have more highlights in my ebook than I've ever had in any other book. Here are some examples of fascinating facts:

"The Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602, and its eponymous English imitator were the first true capitalist corporations, with their equity capital divided into tradable shares paying cash dividends at the discretion of their directors. Nothing resembling these astoundingly dynamic institutions emerged in the Orient. And, though they increased royal revenue, they also diminished royal prerogatives by creating new and enduring stakeholders in the early-modern state: bankers, bond-holders and company directors."

"the Muslim clergy effectively snuffed out the chance of Ottoman scientific advance – at the very moment that the Christian Churches of Europe were relaxing their grip on free inquiry."

"Between 1980 and 2000 the number of patents registered in Israel was 7,652 compared with 367 for all the Arab countries combined. In 2008 alone Israeli inventors applied to register 9,591 new patents. The equivalent figure for Iran was fifty and for all majority Muslim countries in the world 5,657."

And many more.