If in the year 1411 you had been able to circumnavigate the globe, you would have been most impressed by the dazzling civilizations of the Orient. The Forbidden City was under construction in Ming Beijing; in the Near East, the Ottomans were closing in on Constantinople. By contrast, England would have struck you as a miserable backwater ravaged by plague, bad sanitation and in...
If in the year 1411 you had been able to circumnavigate the globe, you would have been most impressed by the dazzling civilizations of the Orient. The Forbidden City was under construction in Ming Beijing; in the Near East, the Ottomans were closing in on Constantinople. By contrast, England would have struck you as a miserable backwater ravaged by plague, bad sanitation and incessant war. The other quarrelsome kingdoms of Western Europe – Aragon, Castile, France, Portugal and Scotland – would have seemed little better. As for fifteenth-century North America, it was an anarchic wilderness compared with the realms of the Aztecs and Incas. The idea that the West would come to dominate the Rest for most of the next half millennium would have struck you as wildly fanciful. And yet it happened. What was it about the civilization of Western Europe that allowed it to trump the outwardly superior empires of the Orient? The answer, Niall Ferguson argues, was that the West developed six “killer applications” that the Rest lacked: competition, science, democracy, medicine, consumerism and the work ethic. The key question today is whether or not the West has lost its monopoly on these six things. If so, Ferguson warns, we may be living through the end of Western ascendancy. Civilization takes readers on their own extraordinary journey around the world – from the Grand Canal at Nanjing to the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul; from Machu Picchu in the Andes to Shark Island, Namibia; from the proud towers of Prague to the secret churches of Wenzhou. It is the story of sailboats, missiles, land deeds, vaccines, blue jeans and Chinese Bibles. It is the defining narrative of modern world history.
![[英国] 尼尔·弗格森](https://img2.doubanio.com/img/author/medium/public/1559175831.81.jpg)
尼尔·弗格森 作者
阿德
中信出版社2012版
君子不器
中信出版社2012版
Riselia
中信出版社2012版
zhangxunnj
0 有用 TimberNord 2017-10-16 08:25:04
前面读着挺好，感觉作者思路有点跳但毕竟是我喜欢的比较witty的风格所以可以忍，直到倒数第二章关于宗教人设狂崩，把西方的衰落归结为基督教的式微简直就是知识分子之耻，边读边喊WTF，最后是把温州的经济腾飞归结为当地华人基督教的兴起将本书的荒诞推向了高潮。珍爱生命，远离神棍。
0 有用 c h l 2013-09-28 01:06:11
此书十分自说自话且牵强。。。不过也不算白读因为我又增长了一点姿势！原来日语里不但スーツ是外来语（蛤），连背広其实都是savile row的音译哟。
0 有用 庄常飞 2011-09-01 23:33:05
说实话此书还是挺让我失望的，主要原因是Ferguson本人是历史学家，却总是爱写这么显浅的东西。显浅看的人虽多，但必定缺乏深度和广度，无法体现世界和历史的复杂性。这本书随便看看还是好的，某些部分还算有养分，但整体来说应该像是我写的作品的水平
0 有用 向南。 2012-11-11 16:44:11
拿什么拯救你，我的文明。
1 有用 三木 2014-12-11 17:44:25
competition, science, democracy, medicine, consumerism and the work ethic.只想看看protestant work ethic.
0 有用 榕晨 2020-03-22 03:30:25
尼尔弗格森不愧是西方的余秋雨易中天，书写的水银泻地旁证博弈，提纲掣领又大气辉煌。只是读完之后又有点找不到重点，很多分析稍显牵强粗浅。值得一读，但是似乎并不配得上多少学术价值。
0 有用 TimberNord 2017-10-16 08:25:04
前面读着挺好，感觉作者思路有点跳但毕竟是我喜欢的比较witty的风格所以可以忍，直到倒数第二章关于宗教人设狂崩，把西方的衰落归结为基督教的式微简直就是知识分子之耻，边读边喊WTF，最后是把温州的经济腾飞归结为当地华人基督教的兴起将本书的荒诞推向了高潮。珍爱生命，远离神棍。
1 有用 三木 2014-12-11 17:44:25
competition, science, democracy, medicine, consumerism and the work ethic.只想看看protestant work ethic.
0 有用 c h l 2013-09-28 01:06:11
此书十分自说自话且牵强。。。不过也不算白读因为我又增长了一点姿势！原来日语里不但スーツ是外来语（蛤），连背広其实都是savile row的音译哟。
0 有用 Rtlab 2013-01-03 21:17:57
entertainment