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Niall Ferguson
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The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook Gebundene Ausgabe – 16. Januar 2018

Englisch Ausgabe von Niall Ferguson (Autor)
4,2 4,2 von 5 Sternen 1.118 Sternebewertungen
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The instant New York Times bestseller.

A brilliant recasting of the turning points in world history, including the one we're living through, as a collision between old power hierarchies and new social networks.

“Captivating and compelling.” —The New York Times

"Niall Ferguson has again written a brilliant book...In 400 pages you will have restocked your mind. Do it." —The Wall Street Journal

“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

Most history is hierarchical: it's about emperors, presidents, prime ministers and field marshals. It's about states, armies and corporations. It's about orders from on high. Even history "from below" is often about trade unions and workers' parties. But what if that's simply because hierarchical institutions create the archives that historians rely on? What if we are missing the informal, less well documented social networks that are the true sources of power and drivers of change?

The 21st century has been hailed as the Age of Networks. However, in The Square and the Tower, Niall Ferguson argues that networks have always been with us, from the structure of the brain to the food chain, from the family tree to freemasonry. Throughout history, hierarchies housed in high towers have claimed to rule, but often real power has resided in the networks in the town square below. For it is networks that tend to innovate. And it is through networks that revolutionary ideas can contagiously spread. Just because conspiracy theorists like to fantasize about such networks doesn't mean they are not real.

From the cults of ancient Rome to the dynasties of the Renaissance, from the founding fathers to Facebook, The Square and the Tower tells the story of the rise, fall and rise of networks, and shows how network theory--concepts such as clustering, degrees of separation, weak ties, contagions and phase transitions--can transform our understanding of both the past and the present.

Just as The Ascent of Money put Wall Street into historical perspective, so The Square and the Tower does the same for Silicon Valley. And it offers a bold prediction about which hierarchies will withstand this latest wave of network disruption--and which will be toppled.
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  1. Seitenzahl der Print-Ausgabe
    592 Seiten
  2. Sprache
    Englisch
  3. Herausgeber
    Penguin Press
  4. Erscheinungstermin
    16. Januar 2018
  5. Abmessungen
    16.26 x 3.23 x 24.13 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0735222916
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0735222915
  8. Alle Details anzeigen
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Produktbeschreibungen

Pressestimmen

“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 insight 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 snapshots 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 sleep 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 scope, The Square and the Tower applies insights 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 insights 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 insights 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 insights. Silicon Valley needed a history lesson and Ferguson has provided it." —Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Alphabet, the parent company of Google

Über den Autor und weitere Mitwirkende

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).

Produktinformation

  • Herausgeber ‏ : ‎ Penguin Press (16. Januar 2018)
  • Sprache ‏ : ‎ Englisch
  • Gebundene Ausgabe ‏ : ‎ 592 Seiten
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0735222916
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0735222915
  • Abmessungen ‏ : ‎ 16.26 x 3.23 x 24.13 cm
  • Kundenrezensionen:
    4,2 4,2 von 5 Sternen 1.118 Sternebewertungen

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Niall Ferguson

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Spitzenrezensionen aus Deutschland

  • Anna v. D.
    4,0 von 5 Sternen Historische Synthese
    Bewertet in Deutschland am 11. September 2020
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    The Square and the Tower ist kein leicht verdauliches Werk. Es stellt die Gewohnheiten bisheriger Geschichtsschreibung in Frage und erzählt die Geschichte Europas (und Amerikas), gespickt mit Daten, Modellen, Graphen und Tabellen, aus einer vollkommen neuen Perspektive. Inwieweit prägen Netzwerke den Gang der Geschichte, inwieweit sind bestehende Hierarchien flexibel und anpassungsfähig? Niall Ferguson behandelt in seinem Werk „Wendepunkte“ der Geschichte ausgehend von obiger Fragestellung, verbleibt allerdings nicht bei der jeweils zeitgenössischen Antwort sondern zieht generelle Ableitungen zum besseren Verständnis heutiger Vorgänge. Denn, so neu wie wir glauben, ist die Herausforderung durch das Internet und Social Media nicht; vielmehr wiederholt sich hier und jetzt ein Schema das sich in den vergangenen Jahrhunderten immer wieder gezeigt hat, lediglich nunmehr global, gleichzeitig und atemberaubend schnell.

    Die Antworten, die die Geschichte auf die Herausforderungen der netzwerkenden Disruption gibt, sind eindeutig. Netzwerke können disruptiv wirken, sie können alte und morsche Hierarchien zum Einsturz bringen; ja sie können sogar eine Zeit der Anarchie hervorrufen, aber, und es ist ein großes Aber, Netzwerke sind nicht konstruktiv. Erst die Überführung des neuen, durch die Disruption hervorgerufenen in eine neue, stabilisierende, Hierarchie, werden deren Errungenschaften von Dauer und Nutzen sein. Square und Tower bedingen einander, sind symbiotisch verwachsen, auch wenn das eine manchmal absterben muss, um Neuem Platz zu machen, so ist die Symbiose unaufhebbar.

    Also, sprach Zarathustra und es ward historische Dialektik.

    5* für Niall Fergusons Fleißarbeit. 4* für das Werk, welchem dringend eine Einführung in Netzwerktheorie vorangestellt gehört.
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  • Steinbrüchel
    3,0 von 5 Sternen Zu viele Worte für den Inhalt
    Bewertet in Deutschland am 9. Juli 2021
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    Zwar hat der Autor ein wichtiges Thema aufgegriffen, sehr sorgfältig recherchiert und inhaltlich gut aufgebaut. Aber er braucht viel zu viele Worte, zu viele Details, zu viele Zitate und Literaturhinweise für den Inhalt, den man auch mit viel weniger Details versteht.

    M. Steinbrüchel
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  • Amazon Kunde
    1,0 von 5 Sternen Verworren
    Bewertet in Deutschland am 13. Juni 2021
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    Reich an historischen Beispielen und Bezügen, aber leider zulasten der Verständlichkeit und Stringenz. Die Darstellung ist sprunghaft: Das Buch verweist auf eine Vielzahl von Werken und historischen Ereignissen, stellt diese aber so verkürzt dar, dass damit für den Leser kein Informationsgehalt verbunden ist (wenn er die Geschehnisse oder Werke nicht kennt oder nachliest). Das Lesen wird hierdurch komplizierter als es die Materie erfordern würde. Insgesamt leider nur eine Anhäufung interessanter Ideen, die einem nicht das Gefühl gönnt, etwas verstanden oder gelernt zu haben.
    Eine Person fand diese Informationen hilfreich
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  • Frank Thun
    2,0 von 5 Sternen Starker Anfang, dann Zusammenhanglos
    Bewertet in Deutschland am 16. April 2019
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    Ein Buch über Netzwerke mit einer starken Zusammenfassung der Theorie, aber dann General-historisches Gerede über Netzwerke. Schön das der Autor soviel über Universalhistorie weiss, aber der Zusammenhang mit Netzwerken ist nicht so klar.
    2 Personen fanden diese Informationen hilfreich
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  • darwien
    3,0 von 5 Sternen drives the message home
    Bewertet in Deutschland am 5. August 2019
    Das Nachwort ist es wert gelesen zu werden, behalten Sie es sich für den Schluss auf. Ein Best of gemischt mit, wenn Verschwörungstheorie, dann bitte British und einem bunten Potpourri an, ich würde sagen tauglichen Artikeln, die üblicherweise im besseren Monatsmagazin gedruckt erscheinen. Der geschulte Wissenschaftler und Autor holpert von Kapitel zu Kapitel mit ein paar Graphiken und Zitaten. Sagen wir, wer die letzten 30 Jahre eingefroren war bekommt hier einen Crashkurs in ... ups ... 21. Jahrhundert ?
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  • Oliver Leodolter
    1,0 von 5 Sternen Buch sah bei Lieferung schon aus wie gebraucht!
    Bewertet in Deutschland am 23. August 2020
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    Bei der Lieferung hatte das Buch schon einige Abnutzungsspuren (vielleicht auch durch den Versand). Bin eigentlich besseres gewohnt.
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  • Oh Really!
    5,0 von 5 Sternen Excellent!
    Bewertet in Deutschland am 5. März 2019
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    Excellent!
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  • Kindle Customer
    5,0 von 5 Sternen Accessible history meets network theory
    Bewertet in Kanada am 11. Oktober 2022
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    One of our greatest contemporary historians takes a fascinating look at the role of informal networks in history. Insightful and compelling!
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  • Cano
    3,0 von 5 Sternen Good thesis. Too much jumping around no cohesive structure
    Bewertet in Mexiko am 10. April 2021
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    I like the book and the frame/optic it was under. I sometimes had to remind myself what I was reading about as the overarching theme was not abundantly clear over the whole book and even chapters. Still an interest read with some good chapters are some not so good
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  • Rohil
    5,0 von 5 Sternen Super interesting read.
    Bewertet in Indien am 9. August 2021
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    Loved this book. It had me hooked right from the beginning. I liked the style that meandered, around different timelines, and incidents. Was an engaging way to refresh my history and has given me a greater understanding of the way geo-politics works.
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  • Ricardo Duarte
    5,0 von 5 Sternen Uma história do mundo através das redes sociais
    Bewertet in Brasilien am 29. Juni 2020
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    O ângulo diferente sobre fatos conhecidos é o principal diferencial do livro.
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  • Clay Garner
    5,0 von 5 Sternen ‘Brings insights of myriad disciplines, ranging from economics to sociology, from neuroscience to organizational behavior’
    Bewertet in den USA am24. Januar 2018
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    “Reflexivity is, in effect, a two-way feedback mechanism in which reality helps shape the participants’ thinking and the participants’ thinking helps shape reality.’’ - George Soros.

    Which is most important, powerful - networks or hierarchy?

    How can one man, George Soros, ‘break the Bank of England’ and the entire British government helpless to stop him?

    Ferguson’s book is a masterful analysis (synthesis) of this very question. The answer derives from understanding the difference between - the distributed strength of networks (Soros) vs the concentrated power of organizations (government).

    Great!

    “It tells the story of the interaction between networks and hierarchies from ancient times until the very recent past. It brings together theoretical insights from myriad disciplines, ranging from economics to sociology, from neuroscience to organizational behaviour.’’

    As he says, Ferguson covers a lot of stuff. Easy to follow, but reader (listener) needs serious commitment. Detailed and historical. Comprehensive and profound.

    “Its central thesis is that social networks have always been much more important in history than most historians, fixated as they have been on hierarchical organizations such as states, have allowed –but never more so than in two periods. The first ‘networked era’ followed the introduction of the printing press to Europe in the late fifteenth century and lasted until the end of the eighteenth century. The second –our own time –dates from the 1970s, though I argue that the technological revolution we associate with Silicon Valley was more a consequence than a cause of a crisis of hierarchical institutions.’’

    Ferguson willing to think against the grain. Confident but not arrogant, offers reasons along with conclusions.

    “The intervening period, from the late 1790s until the late 1960s, saw the opposite trend: hierarchical institutions re-established their control and successfully shut down or co-opted networks. The zenith of hierarchically organized power was in fact the mid-twentieth century –the era of totalitarian regimes and total war.’’ (xxv)

    Make no mistake, this is no dry, technical, theoretical history lesson. This presents real life, with real people. Ella Fitzgerald, Mark Zukerberg, Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Nathan Rothschild, Frederic Hayek, Ben Bernanke, Julian Assange, Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela, etc., etc., are all here!

    PART I Introduction: Networks and Hierarchies
    1 Mystery of the Illuminati
    2 Our Networked Age
    4. Why Hierarchies?
    6. Weak Ties and Viral Ideas
    10. The Illuminati Illuminated

    PART II Emperors and Explorers
    11. A Brief History of Hierarchy
    12. The First Networked Age
    15. Pizarro and the Inca
    16. When Gutenberg Met Luther

    PART III Letters and Lodges
    17. The Economic Consequences of the Reformation
    18. Trading Ideas
    19. Networks of Enlightenment
    20. Networks of Revolution

    PART IV The Restoration of Hierarchy
    24. The House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
    25. The House of Rothschild
    26. Industrial Networks

    PART V Knights of the Round Table
    28. An Imperial Life
    29. Empire
    32. The Union of South Africa

    PART VI Plagues and Pipers
    36. The Plague
    37. The Leader Principle
    39. The Ring of Five
    41. Ella in Reform School

    PART VII Own the Jungle
    44. The Crisis of Complexity
    45. Henry Kissinger’s Network of Power
    47. The Fall of the Soviet Empire
    48. The Triumph of Davos Man
    49. Breaking the Bank of England

    PART VIII The Library of Babel
    50. 9/ 11/ 2001
    52. The Administrative State
    53. Web 2.0

    PART IX Conclusion: Facing Cyberia
    57. Metropolis
    58. Network Outage

    Last chapter . . .

    “And it is no longer a mere possibility that this network can be instrumentalized by corrupt oligarchs or religious fanatics to wage a new and unpredictable kind of war in cyberspace. That war has commenced.’’

    Wow!

    “Indices of geopolitical risk suggest that conventional and even nuclear war may not be far behind. Nor can it be ruled out that a ‘planetary superorganism’ created by the Dr Strangeloves of artificial intelligence may one day run amok, calculating –not incorrectly –that the human race is by far the biggest threat to the long-run survival of the planet itself and exterminating the lot of us.’’

    Well . . .

    “ ‘I thought once everybody could speak freely and exchange information and ideas, the world is automatically going to be a better place,’ said Evan Williams, one of the co-founders of Twitter in May 2017. ‘I was wrong about that.’”

    “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks’’ or in modern speak - ‘garbage in - garbage out’

    “The lesson of history is that trusting in networks to run the world is a recipe for anarchy: at best, power ends up in the hands of the Illuminati, but more likely it ends up in the hands of the Jacobins.’’

    This is Robespierre- the original ‘terrorist’.
    “Some today are tempted to give at least ‘two cheers for anarchism’. Those who lived through the wars of the 1790s and 1800s learned an important lesson that we would do well to re-learn: unless one wishes to reap one revolutionary whirlwind after another . . .’’

    (This refers to Hosea 8:7 - “for they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind’’)

    “ . . . it is better to impose some kind of hierarchical order on the world and to give it some legitimacy. At the Congress of Vienna, the five great powers agreed to establish such an order, and the pentarchy they formed provided a remarkable stability for the better part of the century that followed. Just over 200 years later, we confront the same choice they faced.’’

    What form, or arrangement does Ferguson recommend?

    “Conveniently, the architects of the post-1945 order created the institutional basis for such a new pentarchy in the form of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, an institution that retains the all-important ingredient of legitimacy. Whether or not these five great powers can make common cause once again, as their predecessors did in the nineteenth century, is the great geopolitical question of our time.’’

    Interesting. This scholarly, erudite, historical, profound work, reaches the goal of. . .world government. Why? Ferguson recognizes the horror of the French Revolution; the overwhelming devastation of the thirty years war; the terrible cost of Napoleon’s ideas. As a historian, he knows peace and security are fleeting.

    Page 427 - from a sermon in fourteenth century . . .

    “But the Apocalypse, in the thirteenth chapter, presents war in the figure of a beast coming out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads, like a leopard, and with the feet of a bear. What do these ten horns signify?’’

    The scripture reads - “And I saw a wild beast ascending out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, and on its horns ten diadems. Now the wild beast that I saw was like a leopard, but its feet were like those of a bear, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And the dragon gave to the beast its power and its throne and great authority.’’ Rev 13:1,2

    The obvious meaning of horns is political power, and this beast has ‘power, throne, great authority’. Political hierarchy, using Ferguson’s term. Composite beast implies one organization made up of multiple separate ‘beasts’. This is a good image of what Ferguson believes necessary; one overarching ‘Tower’ (UN) to exercise ‘great authority’ over the ‘Square’ (society below).

    Ferguson turns to Biblical source to illustrate modernity. Fascinating! Why? Seems to fit!

    Fifty-one illustrations and twenty-five plates, full color (linked). Wonderful!

    Fifty-one pages of linked references (2000?). Tremendous!

    Forty-three page bibliography (800?) not linked. Amazing!

    Twenty-four page exhaustive index (linked). Fantastic!
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