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The Square and the Tower

Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power

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About this listen

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson, read by John Sackville.

Most history is hierarchical: it's about popes, presidents, and prime ministers. But what if that's simply because they create the historical archives? What if we are missing equally powerful but less visible networks - leaving them to the conspiracy theorists, with their dreams of all-powerful Illuminati?

The twenty-first century has been hailed as the Networked Age. But in The Square and the Tower Niall Ferguson argues that social networks are nothing new. From the printers and preachers who made the Reformation to the freemasons who led the American Revolution, it was the networkers who disrupted the old order of popes and kings. Far from being novel, our era is the Second Networked Age, with the computer in the role of the printing press. But networks have a dark side, prone to clustering, contagions, and even outages. And the conflicts of the past already have unnerving parallels today, in the time of Facebook, Islamic State and Trumpworld.

Audio updated as of December 2017.

 Economic History Economics World Socialism Imperialism China Capitalism Iran Latin American Africa Middle East Middle Ages Soviet Union War Taxation Russia Social justice Imperial Japan Royalty Self-Determination Liberalism
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With a strong background in History, I found this book a magnum opus from Niall Ferguson. I enjoyed listening to how Ferguson draws from history to illustrate the conceptual clash between networks and hierarchies.

The Square and the Tower

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narrator was good, wasn't overly irritating or slow, good listen if you like this sort of thing and guessing you do if you're listening

long but worth it

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Conflict between central power and diffuse networks as old as time and when balance of power shifts conflict follows. Frightening when we consider American chaos as world allegiances realign and non rational actors hold power.

Inspired and frightened

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Naill Ferguson gives us a grand tour of hierarchies and networks of history. Like his earlier work the Ascent of Money, he shows how hierarchies and networks have formed the hidden backbone of the world we know today.
I am a fan of his no nonsense approach to history, his depth of knowledge and the insights into areas of history that main stream historians fear to tread.
I enjoyed this book, and it has encouraged me to delve deeper into the fascinating world of networks and how they shape our world.

A thought provoking alternative view of history

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Fascinating story of networks with many interesting historical anecdotes. Narrating quotes in the national accent is a bit weird at first but kinda works

Heading is not in fact optional

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