Why The West Rules - For Now: The Patterns Of History And What They Reveal About The Future. Ian Morris

Reviews: €˜The nearest thing to a unified field theory of history we are ever likely to get. I loved it. €™
-Niall Ferguson

€˜This is great work of synthesis and argument, drawing together an awesome range of materials and authorities to bring us a fresh, sharp reading of East €" West relationship. €™
-Andrew Marr

€˜Here you have three books wrapped into one: an exciting novel that happens to be true; an entertaining but thorough historical account of everything important that happened to any important people in the last 10 millennia; and an educated guess about what will happen in the future. Read, learn and enjoy! €™
-Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse

€˜His vision is dazzling, and his prose irresistible. Everyone from Sheffield to Shanghai who wants to know, not only how they came to be who and where they are , but where their children and their children €™s children might one day end up, must read this book. €™
-Anthony Pagden, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and History at the University of California, Los Angeles

€˜At last €" a brilliant historian with a light touch. We should all rejoice. €™
-John Julius Norwich

Description: In the middle of the eighteenth century, British entrepreneurs unleashed the astounding energies of steam and coal, an the world was changed forever. Factories, railways and gunboats then propelled the West €™s rise to power, and computers and nuclear weapons in the twentieth century secured its global supremacy . Today, however, many worry that the emergence of China and India spell the end of the West as a Superpower.

How long will the power of the West last? In order to find out, we need to know: Why has the West been so dominant for the past two hundred years?

Boldly setting out the patterns of human history and analyzing the latest research across disciplines, from ancient history to neuroscience, eminent archaeologist and historian, Ian Morris, offers surprising new answers to these questions. It is not, he reveals the strivings of great individuals, that explain western dominance. Not is it simply that the West got lucky when the Industrial Revolution began.

Only by examining the whole story of human civilization can we see the crucial effects of geography on the everyday efforts of ordinary people as they deal with crises of resources, disease, migration and climate. And as geography and human ingenuity continue to interact, the world will change in astonishing ways.

With flair and authority, Ian Morris draws uniquely on 15,000 years of history of offer fresh insights on why development differed in the East and West, and what the future will bring. Deeply researched and brilliantly argued, Why the West Rules €" For Now is a gripping and truly original history of the world.

Contents: Introduction € Part I: Before East and West € The West takes the Lead € Talking the Measure of the Past € Part II: The East Catches Up € Neck and Neck € Decline the Fall € The Eastern Age € Going Global € The West Catches Up € The Western Age € Part III: Why the West Rules... € ... For Now € Appendix: On Social Development.

About the Author: Born and educated in Britain, Ian Morris is Willard Professor of Classics, Professor of History and a fellow of the Archaeology Centre at Stanford University. He has written and edited a number of academic books, including, the most recently, The Greeks and The Dynamics of Ancient Empires. He has appeared on a number of television networks, and has directed excavations in Greece and Italy. This is his first trade book.

Target Audience: Researchers in the area of History, and General Public.