{"product":{"product_id":"0143122061","title":"Civilization: The West and the Rest","price":"13.99","image_url":"https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41JwKjVXkIL._SL500_.jpg","url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0143122061"},"comments":[{"body":"Yeah basically, or rather Diamond has a somewhat mechanistic explanation for How History Happened and sort of fits everything into that framework. Like I remember he makes one tossed off argument that Europe is geographically suited for small, competing states, while China and India and geographically situated such that they favor large empires, which really just needs a quick glance at a topographic map of Eurasia or a political timeline of India to set your head a-scratching.\r\n\r\nThat said, I have long been of the view that when talking about Diamond it should be borne in mind that the primary competing argument for Why History Happened As It Did was not a complex, multifaceted approach like in the recent *The Dawn of Everything* but rather \"white people are culturally or biologically superior and so took over the world.\" [There are worse things than geographic determinism.](https://www.amazon.com/Civilization-West-Rest-Niall-Ferguson/dp/0143122061)\r\n\r\n(Also if you want a book that is somewhat Diamond-ish in being very geographically conscious and a touch mechanistic but more engaged with the scholarship, I still quite like Ian Morris' *Why the West Rules--For Now*)","subreddit_name":"AskHistorians","author":"Tiako"},{"body":"Honestly, read Civilization by Niall Ferguson. \r\n\r\nExcellent comparison of the fall of several empires with the US today. \r\n\r\nThe common trend, over-expansion, turning inward, eschewing science and progression. \r\n\r\nThe US is fucked. \r\n\r\nhttps://www.amazon.ca/Civilization-West-Rest-Niall-Ferguson/dp/0143122061","subreddit_name":"atheism","author":"wolfington12"},{"body":"[Civilization by Niall Ferguson](https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0143122061?*Version*=1\u0026amp;*entries*=0)\r\nSounds like this is what you're looking for. Hope this helps.\r\n Amazon review: \"Acclaimed historian Niall Ferguson argues that beginning in the fifteenth century, the West developed six powerful new concepts, or “killer applications”—competition, science, the rule of law, modern medicine, consumerism, and the work ethic—that the Rest lacked, allowing it to surge past all other competitors.\"\r\n","subreddit_name":"history","author":"neuronius"},{"body":"I found Niall Ferguson's \"Civilization: The West and the Rest\" to be a solid and encompassing look at world history over the past 500 years (with plenty of references to times prior to these dates). \r\n\r\nIt is also written by someone who isn't an \"apologist\" or an \"American liberal,\" so I found the tone and writing to be quite different and refreshing. He seems to lay things out as they happened, rather than whitewashing history or \"romanticizing its losers.\"\r\n\r\nhttp://www.amazon.com/Civilization-West-Rest-Niall-Ferguson/dp/0143122061\r\n","subreddit_name":"history","author":"phamm87"},{"body":"[He recently wrote a book about the successes \\(and failures\\) of civilisations](http://www.amazon.com/Civilization-West-Rest-Niall-Ferguson/dp/0143122061) so presumably he's just recycling some old material so to speak and maybe trying to make a few book sales along the way. \r\n\r\nHe's actually a really good writer and I enjoy his books (though I disagree with his politics) but he's also a good salesman - his entire academic career seems (as far as my limited interest can inform me) to be focused on selling more books. Articles like this from people like him always make me suspicious. ","subreddit_name":"europe","author":"Titanomakhia"},{"body":"Okay, \"marx was right\"... go back to your far left safespace where America is the great satan and everyone agrees with your ahistorical understanding of how civilizations function. Look up what confirmation bias is. Your youtube videos don't trump textbooks and non fiction. \r\n\r\nI recommend you read this book or watch the pbs documentary on it in case reading is too mentally taxing for you. \r\n\r\nhttps://www.amazon.com/Civilization-West-Rest-Niall-Ferguson/dp/0143122061\r\n\r\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaKQHpqnRMA\u0026amp;list=PLRenVkZS27pI6kDru63d1TV-vUbxYzzq7\u0026amp;ab_channel=Calibration","subreddit_name":"PublicFreakout","author":"FreeThinkingMan"},{"body":"LOL, exactly. You can't even link a history book. You should of just linked a google search. Unreal. The military and government functions entirely different then did during the cold war and 70 years ago. If you didn't insist on confirmation biasing your conspiracy theories you would know this. Thanks for the good laugh and proving you are a know nothing conspiracy theorist. \r\n\r\nhttps://yale.learningu.org/download/041e9642-df02-4eed-a895-70e472df2ca4/H2665_Descartes%27%20Meditations.pdf\r\n\r\nhttps://www.amazon.com/Civilization-West-Rest-Niall-Ferguson/dp/0143122061\r\n\r\nHere you go kid. These will help ground you in reality and make you sound less like a hysterical conspiracy theorist stuck in the 70s.","subreddit_name":"AskALiberal","author":"FreeThinkingMan"},{"body":"Our culture is over 2000 years old. \r\n\r\nAnd the low countries, especially Flanders, was already one of the richest regions of Europe before the colonies. \r\n\r\nA good read for you: [https://www.amazon.com/Civilization-West-Rest-Niall-Ferguson/dp/0143122061](https://www.amazon.com/Civilization-West-Rest-Niall-Ferguson/dp/0143122061) \r\n\r\n\\\u0026gt; If you gave Belgium the same economic conditions as, say, Marrakech, there'd be a bloody civil war before you could say 'hey wait violence is caused by poverty'\r\n\r\nHistory proves you wrong. Flanders was dirt poor in the 19th century. Tons of people died of starvation. No civil war.","subreddit_name":"Belgium2","author":"GVerhofstadt"},{"body":"\u0026gt; Ferguson and aftermath so far shows that cops CAN crack down on what was intended to be a serious racial uprising.\r\n\r\nCause a problem and then fix it, in the process take away more rights. Have morons like you cheer. Read naill Ferguson's book on Civilization, the weat and the rest. Western countries are going to enter a new form of feudalism. In the old form of feudalism Catholism ruled things, the new form of feudalism will be ruled by political correctness. \r\n\r\nwww.amazon.com/Civilization-West-Rest-Niall-Ferguson/dp/0143122061","subreddit_name":"DarkEnlightenment","author":"sir_wankalot_here"}]}