Civilization: The West and the Rest

Meeting at the usual place, The Shakespeare Hotel, 200 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills, on Thursday June 25, we will discuss Civilization: The West and the Rest (2011) by Niall Ferguson.

In my opinion (Dale) this is a remarkable work. It asks why a small portion of the earth – 7% of the world's land area – was able to establish capitalism and explore and colonise the world, from about the 1500s onwards.

Ferguson argues that the West had a number of 'killer applications.' They included Competition (between states and firms), Science (systematic inquiry and technological innovation), the Rule of law / property rights. Also Medicine (especially modern public health and antibiotics), consumerism (mass markets and demand-driven economies) and the work ethic (especially Protestant-influenced discipline and saving).

It is written for an intelligent, lay reader, and is not an 'academic' work.

If people have a lot of time, you might also want to read a very short work with which this has been contrasted, The West and the Rest: Globalization and the Terrorist Threat (2002) by Roger Scruton. It has been suggested that the former is a serious work of social science, while the latter almost borders on the mystical.

The format that seems to work best is that we discuss the book for about 50 minutes in a fairly disciplined way, where one person speaks at a time and everyone gets a turn to speak. My role as a facilitator is to ask provocative questions if everyone agrees. I will play Devil's Advocate where there is consensus. Then I might express my personal views in the last few minutes. The meeting then breaks up and everyone can stay back to further discuss the book or anything else!

This books is fairly easily available from local libraries and our friend Anna. Contact me at dalemills (at) cantab.net for a free pdf.