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The Square and the Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power

ferguson niall

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The Square and the Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power

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Rethinking history through networks versus hierarchies.

If you've ever felt that history books left out the undercurrents that truly shaped our world, Ferguson's "The Square and the Tower" is likely to resonate with you. It dives into the influence of networks throughout history, challenging the traditional focus on hierarchical power. The lens through which Ferguson examines past events might just shift your perspective on how the world works, especially in light of today's digitally interconnected societies. This is not just history; it's an exploration of the patterns that repeat over time.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.

The Square and the Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power

Regular price
Unit price
per
Condition guide
ISBN: 9780241298985
Author: ferguson niall
Publisher: Allen Lane
Date of Publication: 2017-01-01
Format: Paperback
Goodreads rating: 3.65
(rated by 4293 readers)

Description

What if everything we thought we knew about history was wrong? From the global bestselling author of Empire, The Ascent of Money and Civilization, this is a whole new way of looking at the world. 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. Those looking forward to a utopia of interconnected 'netizens' may therefore be disappointed. For networks are 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.
 

Rethinking history through networks versus hierarchies.

If you've ever felt that history books left out the undercurrents that truly shaped our world, Ferguson's "The Square and the Tower" is likely to resonate with you. It dives into the influence of networks throughout history, challenging the traditional focus on hierarchical power. The lens through which Ferguson examines past events might just shift your perspective on how the world works, especially in light of today's digitally interconnected societies. This is not just history; it's an exploration of the patterns that repeat over time.

Note: While we do our best to ensure the accuracy of cover images, ISBNs may at times be reused for different editions of the same title which may hence appear as a different cover.

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