Review
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“Captivating and compelling. Whether describing the
surprisingly ineffective 18th century network of the mysterious
Illuminati that continue to be the subject of crank conspiracy
theorists or the shockingly effective 20th century network of
Cambridge University spies working for the Soviets, Ferguson
manages both to tell a good story and provide important in
into the specific qualities that power successful networks.”
—The New York Times
“Remarkably interesting . . . always surprising and always
thought-provoking in the places and entities it chooses to pause
and examine, everything from the Mafia to the Soviet Union of
Stalin. . . . The Square and the Tower in addition to being
provocative history, may prove to be a bellwether work of the
Internet Age.” —Christian Science Monitor
"Niall Ferguson has again written a brilliant book. . . . His
short chapters are lucid snaps of a world history of Towers
and Squares, filled with gracefully deployed learning. . . . THE
SQUARE AND THE TOWER is always readable, intelligent, original.
You can swallow a chapter a night before and your dreams
will overflow with scenes of Stendhal’s The Red and the Black,
Napoleon, Kissinger. In 400 pages you will have restocked your
mind. Do it." —The Wall Street Journal
“Ferguson reminds us the social network didn’t spring fully
formed from the mind of Mark Zuckerberg; rather, it’s a
persistent force in human affairs offering a novel lens on past
and perplexing present.”—San Francisco Chronicle
"A wide-ranging and provocative tour through the history of human
connectivity, pre- and post-high tech. Ferguson also ladles out
illuminating doses of networking theory and analysis of the
threat that growing political and economic complexity poses to
established hierarchies and institutions." —Inc.com
“An engaging, provocative history of networks (and their
relationships to hierarchies) from ancient times to the invention
of the printing press to the pervasiveness of the personal
computer. Breathtaking in its scale and , The Square and the
Tower applies ins of network theory to (among other
subjects) Portugal’s foothold in Macau, the “conquest” of the
Incas, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the American
Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, World War I, Stalin’s
Terror, World War II, the fall of the Soviet Union, the founding
of the European Union and the Great Recession of
2008-09.”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“An enthralling ‘reboot’ of history from a novel perspective,
spanning antiquity to the present day. . . . Like the best
historians, [Ferguson] always pauses to learn from the past and
anticipate the future. If only for this reason, [THE SQUARE AND
THE TOWER] is well worth a read.”—Science
“[Ferguson’s] typically bold rethinking of historical currents,
painted on the broadest canvas, offers many stimulating ins
on the tense interplay between order, oppression, freedom, and
anarchy.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Ferguson has written a provocative and intellectually
challenging work that should promote consideration and debate
among academics and laypersons.” —Booklist
“Renowned economic historian Ferguson draws on ins from
network theory to examine disruptions across time. . . .
Refreshingly evenhanded. . . . Ferguson offers a novel way of
examining data . . . highly intriguing.” —Kirkus
“In his sweeping, stimulating and enlightening The Square and the
Tower, noted historian Niall Ferguson draws from a wide range of
sources to trace the crucial role that different kinds of human
networks have played throughout history… Ferguson’s superb,
thought-provoking book brings these events vividly to life and
will help readers view history from a unique perspective.”
—BookPage
"Niall Ferguson's The Square and the Tower brilliantly
illuminates the great power struggle between networks and
hierarchies that is raging around the world today. As a software
engineer steeped in the theory and practice of networks, I was
deeply impressed by this book's ins. Silicon Valley needed a
history lesson and Ferguson has provided it." —Eric Schmidt,
Executive Chairman of Alphabet, the parent company of Google
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About the Author
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Niall Ferguson is one of the world's most renowned
historians. He is the author of Paper and Iron, The House of
Rothschild, The Pity of War, The Cash Nexus, Empire, Colossus,
The War of the World, The Ascent of Money, High Financier,
Civilization, The Great Degeneration, Kissinger, 1923-1968: The
Idealist, and The Square and the Tower. He is Senior Fellow at
the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a Visiting
Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. His many awards
include the Benjamin Franklin Prize for Public Service (2010),
the Hayek Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2012) and the Ludwig
Erhard Prize for Economic Journalism (2013).
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