CIVILIZATION: The West and the Rest. (2011). Niall Ferguson. ****.
Although this study reads at times like a book for the genral reader, it often slips into becoming a scholarly study, hence becoming neither fish nor fowl. The rating of four-stars could easily have feen five-stars except for this flaw. The author is a noted British historian who, up until now has focused on the world of economics and its effect on the growth of civilization. This study expands the range of influences beyond those simply monetary. The six novel complexes of institutions and associated ideas and behaviors under which he classes his findings are as follows:
1, Competition
2. Science
3. Property rights
4. Medicine
5. The consumer society
6. The work ethic
He then goes on to fully describe what he means by each category and provide examples of events falling under each to outline the impact they had on progress in the East vs. the West. The examples the author provides are almost endless. In the category of science, he follows the discoveries made between the period 1530 to 1789 by ‘scientists’ in the West. He has selected only the most important twenty-nine breakthroughs. To list them all here would take up too much space, but I have to grab a few:
1530 Paracelsus pioneers the application of chemistry to physiology and pathology.
1543 Nicolaus Copernicus’ “De revolutionibus orbium coelistium” states the heliocentric theory of the solar system.
1589 Galileo’s tests of falling bodies revolutionize the experimental method.
1610 Galileo discovers four of Jupiter’s moons and infers that Earth is not at the center of the universe.
1628 William Harvey writes accurately describing the circulation of blood.
1640 Pierre de Fermat founds number theory
1669 Isaac Newton presents the first systematic account of the calculus, idependently developed by Gottfried Leibniz.
1789 Lavoisir states the law of conservation of matter.

You can scan the entire list on pp.65-66 in the text. The impact of these discoveries in the West was tremendous, while the East remained flat in their pursuit of science. “The best explanation for this divergence was the unlimited sovereignty of relifion in the Muslim world.” The author then goes on to support his thesis. This book is full of detailed examples for all of his six categories, ultimately nailed down into intelligent conclusions. The book is also full of my favorite types of factoids – things I never knew, or once knew and have forgotten. Here are a few: In South America, where slavery (discussed under his heading of property) was much more rampant than in North America, and, the reality of interbreeding was recognized, the South Americans had names for the issue of these relations: mestizos, the offspring of Spanish men and Indian women; mulattos, born of unions of creoles and blacks; and zambos, the children of Indians and blacks. Under his heading of consumption, the author describes the ultimate conquest of our jeans society over the rest of the world. He goes on to say: “There are just a very few places where people hold out against the giand sartorial blending manchine. One of the is rural Peru. In the mountains of the Andes, the Quechua women still wear their brightly colored dresses and shawls and their ittle felt hats, pinned at jaunty angles and decorated with their tribal insignia. Except that these are not traditional Quechua clothes at all. The dresses, shawls and hats are in fact of Andalusian origin and were imposed by the Spanish Viceroy Francisco di Toledo in 1572.” I could go on quoting items forever, but will, mercifully stop. The last chapter of his book presents the author’s conclusions about this study and his tentative predictions as to what the future might bring. All in all, this is a fascinating book. Recommended.