Readers of Why the West Rules―For Now are unlikely to see the history of the world in. .Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money.

Readers of Why the West Rules―For Now are unlikely to see the history of the world in quite the same way ever again. And that can't be said of many books on any topic. Morris has penned a tour de force. Keith Monroe, The Virginian-Pilot. Morris' new book illustrates perfectly why one really scholarly book about the past is worth a hundred fanciful works of futurology. Morris is the world's most talented ancient historian, a man as much at home with state-of-the-art archaeology as with the classics as they used to be studied. ―Niall Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money.

Start by marking Why the West Rules-for Now: The Patterns . Like Diamond, Morris set out to understand why what today is called the West has dominated the planet for at least the past two centuries.

Start by marking Why the West Rules-for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future as Want to Read: Want to Read savin. ant to Read. Five years later an archaeologist, Ian Morris, wrote another history book (for the general reader!) called Why the West Rules - for Now. Building on Diamond’s thesis, Morris laid out his own, more comprehensive view of the course of human history, reaching back 15,000 years and venturing into the 22nd Century.

Why the West Rules-For Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future is a history book by a British historian Ian Morris, published in 2010. The book compares East and West across the last 15,000 years, arguing that physical geography rather than culture, religion, politics, genetics, or great men explains Western domination of the globe.

To those reading the book primarily with that question in. mind many chapters will be irrelevant. The approach Morris himself prefers is. built around his theorem that, unfortunately, does not inspire much confidence: Were . That is quite beside the point. Differences between societies, their.

Ian Morris is Willard professor of classics, professor of history and a fellow of the Archaeology Centre at Stanford University. Indeed, the East surpassed the West in development for around 1200 years until the late 18th century. This is his first trade book. Morris further contends that although Western rule was very probable after the 14th century or so, the East had chances to keep its lead into the present before them.

Why has the West dominated the globe for the past two hundred years, and will its power last? Describing the patterns of human history, the archaeologist and historian Ian Morris offers surprising new answers to both questions. It is not, he reveals, differences of race or culture, or even the strivings of great individuals, that explain Western dominance. It is the effects of geography on the everyday efforts of ordinary people as they deal with crises of resources, disease, migration, and climate

Ian Morris’ Why the West Rules is a somewhat similar exercise on a much larger . I haven't read that particular book by Ferguson but he usually has something interesting to say.

Ian Morris’ Why the West Rules is a somewhat similar exercise on a much larger scale. What he has done is pull together all the data he can to try and quantify the social and economic development of different parts of the globe over a very long period indeed. Using this data he can assess how they are doing compared to one another. The West has almost always been in the lead, getting started first and usually maintaining that lead. But it has always been close. There have been centuries on end when China took the lead.

Why the West Rules, despite its title, is scarcely about Europe. His grand narrative also pays particular attention to the patterns of human history and the way actual political regimes developed and populations moved in response to environmental challenges

Why the West Rules, despite its title, is scarcely about Europe. As of page 433, in a narrative which runs for 645 pages, no more than 20 pages are dedicated to European history. His grand narrative also pays particular attention to the patterns of human history and the way actual political regimes developed and populations moved in response to environmental challenges. Major sections of the book are dedicated to the way cultures, in varying places in the globe, underwent regular crises brought on by Malthusian pressures, disease, famine, and war.

Why does the West rule? In this magnum opus, eminent Stanford polymath Ian Morris answers this provocative question, drawing on 50,000 years of history, archeology, and the methods of social science, to make sense of when, how, and why the paths of development differed in th.

Why does the West rule? In this magnum opus, eminent Stanford polymath Ian Morris answers this provocative question, drawing on 50,000 years of history, archeology, and the methods of social science, to make sense of when, how, and why the paths of development differed in the East and West - and what this portends for the 21st century. There are two broad schools of thought on why the West rules.