Why the West Rules---For Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal about the Future (Audiobook)

from jcbrunner

Ian Morris has written a highly pleasurable comparative history of China and the West that highlights the similarities and parallelism of the human development at both edges of the Eurasian continent. The social development index he constructs allows both a longitudinal comparison (when does the ...

from VisibleGhost

If human history is looked at from a far distance for the past 50,000 years, do any patterns emerge? Morris thinks so and this book is his hypothesis on what patterns emerge. Any history book that covers this length of time is not a detailed dive into history. Some empires are covered in a paragr...

from mbmackay

A panoramic and encyclopaedic review of history directed at explaining why the "West" is currently top dog, but how the "East" is inevitably going to overtake it in the coming century. The title is a bit of a teaser, because the book takes the very broad view of history, and the current era is gi...

from LynnCar

This is the best overview of world history that I have read. It ties different aspects of development together and makes sense of most aspects of the world. I particularly liked the economic connection and the future discussions of current trends.

from drew.sonne

Rather than following the well trodden lines of "democracy from ancient Greece" or "the Industrial Revolution occurred in Europe", Ian Morris, chronicles human civilisation from our move out of the Hilly Flanks in modern Turkey, through to the Roman and Song Empires through to the modern day. His...