New Releases by Niall Ferguson

Un viaggiatore che avesse circumnavigato il globo all''inizio del XV secolo sarebbe rimasto stupito dalle incredibili disparità fra l''emisfero orientale e quello occidentale. Infatti, mentre nella Pechino dei Ming era in costruzione la meravigliosa Città Proibita e in Asia Minore gli ottomani, impegnati nell''assedio di Costantinopoli, stavano per consolidare il loro impero, l''Inghilterra si presentava come un luogo di miseria e desolazione, tormentato dalla peste, da pessime condizioni igieniche e da sanguinosi conflitti. E negli altri litigiosi regni dell''Europa occidentale - Francia, Spagna e Portogallo - le cose non andavano meglio. L''idea che l''Occidente avrebbe dominato il resto del pianeta per i successivi cinquecento anni gli sarebbe sembrata, quindi, pura fantasia. Che cosa ha permesso che ciò accadesse? Per lo storico Niall Ferguson, la risposta va individuata in quelle che, con un''espressione presa a prestito dall''informatica, definisce "applicazioni vincenti ", cioè gli strumenti di civiltà di cui l''Occidente - a differenza dell''Oriente - ha saputo dotarsi: competizione (generata dalla decentralizzazione della vita politica ed economica), ricerca scientifica (in particolare in campo bellico), proprietà privata (e nascita dello Stato di diritto), medicina (e allungamento della vita media), consumismo (che ha dato il via alla Rivoluzione industriale) ed etica del lavoro (il collante morale necessario al nuovo ordinamento sociale). Occidente è, dunque, uno straordinario viaggio attraverso i secoli per capire come una cultura sia riuscita a produrre uno spettacolare progresso in termini di ricchezza economica, assetto politico-istituzionale e tecnologia. E come abbia potuto "contagiare" - con il fascino dell''idea di libertà e la forza irresistibile del mercato, ma anche con la violenza della guerra e del colonialismo - il resto del mondo, cambiandone per sempre la fisionomia. È solo attraverso l''indagine sulle radici di questa duratura supremazia che potremo comprendere se quello a cui stiamo assistendo in questi anni di profonda crisi economica e sociale è davvero il tramonto dell''Occidente e, insieme, l''alba di una nuova era.

In this groundbreaking biography, based on more than 10,000 hitherto unavailable letters and diary entries, Niall Ferguson returns to his roots as a financial historian to tell the story of the extraordinary Siegmund Warburg. A refugee from Hitler''s Germany, Warburg rose to become the dominant figure in the post-war City of London and one of the architects of European financial integration. Seared by events in the 1930s, when the long-established Warburg bank was first almost destroyed by the Depression and then ''Aryanized'' by the Nazis, Warburg was determined that his own bank would learn from the past and contribute to the economic recovery of Britain, the unity of Western Europe and the birth of globalization. Siegmund Warburg was a complex and ambivalent man, as much a psychologist, politician and actor-manager as a banker. In High Financier Niall Ferguson reveals Warburg''s idiosyncracies but above all he recaptures the meticulous business methods and strict ethical code that set Warburg apart from the mere speculators and traders who inhabit today''s financial world.

Excerpted from Niall Ferguson’s sprawling bestseller The War of the World, The Abyss now stands on its own as one of the most thrilling short histories of World War I ever written. This is not a conventional military history about battles and generals. Rather, The Abyss examines how World War I saw the birth of total war—fought between societies as much as armies—and must therefore be understood in terms of the financial crises it unleashed, the multinational empires it destroyed, and the hateful ideas it propagated. The most remarkable thing about the war, Ferguson shows us, is how shockingly unexpected it was. At a time when economic integration and technology seemed to be rendering war between great powers impossible, World War I was the moment when that process went into reverse and the lethal forces of ethnic disintegration took over. Now, on the cusp of the 100th anniversary of its outbreak, we can see World War I as much more than just four years of industrialized slaughter. Weaving together the economics of empire and the ideology of race—and featuring an original preface by the author as well a teaser from his new paperback Civilization—The Abyss is world history at its finest.

La versión definitiva de la historia global contemporánea. Un viajero que recorriera el mundo en 1411 hubiera quedado deslumbrado por las imponentes civilizaciones orientales. La Ciudad Prohibida estaba en plena construcción en la China de los Ming; en Oriente Próximo, los otomanos acechaban Constantinopla. Por el contrario, los belicosos países de Europa occidental, Inglaterra, Escocia, Castilla, Aragón, Francia y Portugal, eran pobres y atrasados, debilitados por las epidemias, las pésimas condiciones sanitarias y las guerras incesantes. En cuanto a Norteamérica, en el siglo XV era un espacio poco habitado y anárquico en comparación con los impresionantes y organizados imperios de los incas y los aztecas. La idea de que Occidente pudiera llegar a dominar al resto del mundo durante el siguiente medio milenio le hubiera parecido ilusoria. Y, sin embargo, eso fue lo que ocurrió. ¿Qué permitió a la civilización de Europa occidental dominar a los aparentemente superiores imperios orientales? Según Niall Ferguson, Occidente logró desarrollar seis poderosos instrumentos, la competencia, la ciencia, el imperio de la ley, la medicina, la sociedad de consumo y la ética del trabajo. La cuestión fundamental hoy día es si Occidente ha perdido el monopolio de estos seis resortes del poder global. Para averiguarlo, Civilización nos lleva a un extraordinario viaje alrededor del mundo, del Gran Canal en Nankín al palacio de Topkapi en Estambul, del Machu Picchu en los Andes a la isla del Tiburón en Namibia; de las altas torres de Praga a las iglesias secretas de Wenzhou. Es la historia de los barcos de vela, los misiles, los títulos de propiedad, las vacunas, los pantalones vaqueros y las biblias chinas. Es la versión definitiva de la historia global contemporánea. La crítica ha dicho... «Un libro agudo y rabiosamente actual. Ferguson, dotado de una mente perspicaz, sabe cómo llegar al núcleo de las cosas y lo hace con gran pulso narrativo.» Andrew Marr, Financial Times «Civilización es otra obra maestra... una gran fuerza guía la exposición y cada página revela datos fascinantes.» Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times «Erudito y, a la vez, ameno.» Mario Vargas Llosa, El País «Uno de los historiadores más reconocidos del mundo.» Hamish McRae, Independent

Una revolucionaria reinterpretación de la historia contemporánea y arroja nueva luz sobre el eterno conflicto entre este y oeste. El siglo XX se abrió con la promesa de los mayores avances científicos y tecnológicos de la historia de la humanidad. Sin embargo, pronto se convirtió en el más sangriento de la historia. ¿Cómo explicar la intensidad y alcance de la violencia desatada en lo que fue realmente una «guerra del mundo»? Niall Ferguson aborda en su libro más ambicioso hasta la fecha la respuesta a esta pregunta, la paradoja fundamental de esta «Edad del Odio» de la historia, que asoló ciudades y exterminó a millones de personas mientras el nivel de vida de gran parte de la población mundial mejoraba imparablemente. Con su característica brillantez, rigor y originalidad, La guerra del mundo explica cuál fue el problema de la modernidad en un viaje que le lleva de la estepa siberiana a las playas de Okinawa, de las llanuras polacas a los cementerios de Guatemala y de las calles de Sarajevo a los campos de exterminio de Camboya. Reseñas: «Absorbente... muy entretenida y estimulante.» Financial Times «Un libro fascinante gracias a la capacidad de Ferguson de escribir historia con claridad y con brío.» The Washington Post

From the bestselling author of The Ascent of Money and The Square and the Tower “A dazzling history of Western ideas.” —The Economist “Mr. Ferguson tells his story with characteristic verve and an eye for the felicitous phrase.” —Wall Street Journal “[W]ritten with vitality and verve . . . a tour de force.” —Boston Globe Western civilization’s rise to global dominance is the single most important historical phenomenon of the past five centuries. How did the West overtake its Eastern rivals? And has the zenith of Western power now passed? 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. Yet now, Ferguson shows how the Rest have downloaded the killer apps the West once monopolized, while the West has literally lost faith in itself. Chronicling the rise and fall of empires alongside clashes (and fusions) of civilizations, Civilization: The West and the Rest recasts world history with force and wit. Boldly argued and teeming with memorable characters, this is Ferguson at his very best.

Is China''s rise unstoppable? Powered by the human capital of 1.3 billion citizens, the latest technological advances, and a comparatively efficient system of state-directed capitalism, China seems poised to become the global superpower this century. But the Middle Kingdom also faces a series of challenges. From energy scarcity to environmental degradation to political unrest and growing global security burdens, a host of factors could derail China''s global ascent. In this edition of The Munk Debates - Canada''s premier international debate series - former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and CNN''s Fareed Zakaria square off against leading historian Niall Ferguson and world-renowned economist David Daokui Li to debate the biggest geopolitical issue of our time: Does the 21st century belong to China? Highly electrifying and thoroughly engrossing, the Munk Debate on China is the first formal public debate Dr. Kissinger has participated in on China''s future, and includes exclusive interviews with Henry Kissinger and David Daokui Li.

Na época que antecedeu a Segunda Guerra Mundial, o Império Britânico cobria mais de um quarto da superfície terrestre. Ainda que, para as novas gerações, esse período possa ser visto como nada além do que uma época remota, o momento é propício para uma reavaliação. Neste trabalho, Niall Ferguson argumenta que o império britânico não deve ser visto apenas como um passado vitoriano, mas sim, como o berço da modernidade. Quase todas as características existentes no século XXI podem ser identificadas na extraordinária expansão econômica, populacional e cultural da Grã-Bretanha desde o século XVII até a metade do século XX - economia globalizada, revolução nas comunicações, mudanças raciais na América do Norte, a noção de humanitarismo, a natureza da democracia. Nesta obra, Ferguson mostra que, longe de ser um assunto nostálgico, a história do Império Britânico está repleta de lições para o mundo moderno.

Historische analyse van de oorzaken, het verloop en de gevolgen van de Eerste Wereldoorlog.

What if there had been no American War of Independence? What if Hitler had invaded Britain? What if Kennedy had lived? What if Russia had won the Cold War? Niall Ferguson, author of the highly acclaimed The Pity of War, leads the charge in this historically rigorous series of separate voyages into “imaginary time” and provides far-reaching answers to these intriguing questions.Ferguson''s brilliant 90-page introduction doubles as a manifesto on the methodology of counter-factual history. His equally masterful afterword traces the likely historical ripples that would have proceeded from the maintenance of Stuart rule in England. This breathtaking narrative gives us a convincing, detailed “alternative history” of the West—from the accession of “James III” in 1701, to a Nazi-occupied England, to a U.S. Prime Minister Kennedy who lives to complete his term.

This paper asks whether developing countries can reap credibility gains from submitting policy to a strict monetary rule. Following earlier work, we look at the gold standard era (1880-1914) as a "natural experiment" to test whether adoption of a rule-based monetary framework such as the gold standard increased policy credibility. On the basis of the largest possible dataset covering almost sixty independent and colonial borrowers in the London market, we challenge the traditional view that gold standard adherence worked as a credible commitment mechanism that was rewarded by financial markets with lower borrowing costs. We demonstrate that in the poor periphery -- where policy credibility is a particularly acute problem -- the market looked behind "the thin film of gold". Our results point to a dichotomy: whereas country risk premia fell after gold adoption in developed countries, there were no credibility gains in the volatile economic and political environments of developing countries. History shows that monetary policy rules are no short-cut to credibility in situations where vulnerability to economic and political shocks, not time-inconsistency, are overarching concerns for investors.

The Caledonian Railway was the largest of the three Scottish companies to go into the London Midland & Scottish Railway at the grouping in 1923. This book looks at how the ''Caley'' system fared in the ownership of the LMS in which it became the dominant partner of the latter''s Northern Division.

قالوا في كتاب نيل فرجسون: «ألمع مؤرخ بريطاني من بين أفراد جيله». الـ"تايمز" «قصة مثيرة.. واستثنائية». كريستوفر ماثيو، "ديلي ميل" «كتاب يحفز الفكر.. ويثير الجدل الخلافي.. (فرجسون) بارع في ابتكار الجمل التي تلفت النظر، بأسلوب رائع ومتوهج.. ويتمتع ـ بشكل عفوي على ما يبدو ـ بالفطنة والكياسة والذكاء اللماح». اندرو روبرت، الـ"تايمز" «مدهش.. يتسم بالتبصر والأصالة» ديفيد غيلمور، "فايننشال تايمز" «مبهر.. يمتع القارئ إلى حد الإدهاش». New York Review of Books "سلاسة في الأسلوب، جاذبية في المنهجية.. الكتاب ممتع، ومترع بالرؤى المتبصرة والأفكار الذكية". فيليب فيرنانديز-ارميستو، "صنداي تايمز". "كتاب يثير الإعجاب.. مفعم بالطاقة، محفز للخيال والفضول". هوغ توماس، "ايفننغ ستاندارد".

Every book tells a story . . .And the 70 titles in the Pocket Penguins series are emblematic of the renowned breadth and quality that formed part of the original Penguin vision in 1935 and that continue to define our publishing today. Together, they tell one version of the unique story of Penguin Books. One of Penguin''s bestselling non-fiction authors, Niall Ferguson has been hailed as the most brilliant historian of his generation for his fresh, provocative and controversial approach to subjects ranging from money to empires. 1914- Why the World Went to Warhas been specially adapted from Ferguson''s bestselling The Pity of War (1998). It is a radical reassessment of how the world hurtled into catastrophe in 1914.

This grand narrative history of the world''s first experiment in globalization offers lessons for an ever-expanding American Empire--from England''s most talented young historian.