Not very good. Filled with interesting insights about the Illuminati (lets deflate the hype) some more on genetics of Queen Victoria's children and grand children (Kings, Queens and Emperors of most of pre-world war one Europe, another notable network touched on Pizzaro and his small band of brothers who destroyed the ruling Inca Empire. with our author interviews, articles, and book lists! The Square and the Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power: 9780241290460: Books - Amazon.ca Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power’ – the history of all hitherto existing society is rather the history of the tension between networks and hierarchies; a fact hitherto largely ignored by historians because networks characteristically “do not leave an orderly paper trail”, although a subsidiary factor is that the study of networks such as the Illuminati, the Freemasons, the Rothschild family and the Bilderberg Group has been widely discredited by the ravings of conspiracy theorists. Even history "from below" is often about trade unions and workers' parties. 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. The Square and the Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power: Ferguson, Niall: Amazon.sg: Books The Square and the Tower, by Niall Ferguson 1. Let's say I write a book. About the only good thing about this book is the idea of a history of social networks. I found parts of it quite tedious, especially the early section detailing. To see what your friends thought of this book, The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook. But what I found in this book is rather different, being a run through history in what seemed to me a disjointed way, albeit very detailed, with network diagrams and many footnotes. Most history is hierarchical: it's about emperors, presidents, prime ministers and field marshals. Start by marking “The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Goodreads members who liked this book also liked: The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook, Most history is hierarchical: it's about emperors, presidents, prime ministers and field marshals. It's about states, armies and corporations. ‘From the Freemasons to Facebook’ is an apt subtitle. His viewpoint is globalist Establishment (from a very Anglo-American perspective), Henry Kissinger apparently being at the forefront of his role models, and deeply pessimistic as he contemplates the interaction of old hierarchical network. His personal infatuation with the superiority of the West is also evident, but you shouldn't expect anything else if you're going to read a Niall Ferguson book. What if we are missi… His viewpoint is globalist Establishment (from a very Anglo-American perspective), Henry Kissinger apparently being at the forefront of his role models, and deeply pessimistic as he contemplates the interaction of old hierarchical networks, such as most states, with the more diffuse, rapidly evolving networks associated with the digital revolution. . I pick a few dozens of random events from thousands of years of human history - let's say from the time of Hamurabi through to the rise of three monot. I don’t usually give books that long, but I’ve enjoyed lots of Ferguson’s writing before, and I wanted to see where this one was going. Niall Ferguson is the author of, among other works, a superb history of the British Empire. Stalled social mobility and entrenched inequality give …, Selected as a Financial Times Best Book of 2013, Great Britain's geopolitical role has undergone many changes over the last four centuries. The inter-personal relationships in an organization can be hard or soft as demanded by the purpose for which the people have joined it. The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? Ferguson presents here a brief introduction to network theory accompanied by illustrations of its application ranging over the last 500 years but focused on recent events such as the internet explosion, 9/11, the 2007/8 crash and the 2016 presidential election. However, it was not my favorite from this author. what did I learn don't under estimate the single human individual and beware of the ruthless self interested leaders in power. However, I would have liked more depth and a wider variety of historical examples of the hierarchy vs. network struggle. Review: The Great and the Good In his latest book, ‘The Square and the Tower,’ Niall Ferguson shows his distrust for the classical liberal assumption that unplanned activity is often beneficent. When people interact with each other, some etiquette is required to be maintained. We live in an age of winners and losers, where the odds are stacked in favour of the already fortunate. The quote of the year comes from Evan Williams,Twitter co-founder “I thought once everybody could speak freely and exchange information and ideas, the world is automatically going to be a better place. I do not think that a couple of pages dedicated to each historical event was enough to persuasively make the. If I hadn’t requested the book from NetGalley I would have not bothered reading any more. I use wiki-length discussions of episodes I choose to suit my definition of "tools" and roles played by them. Niall Ferguson manages to deeply explore the intricacies of social networks and their political and economic contexts whilst also creating a highly readable historical account. But what if that's simply because hierarchical institutions create the archives that historians rely on? Is it possible to give 6 stars? The content wasn’t really new research, seemed to be bits and pieces of the research he did for previous works. I greatly enjoyed Ferguson's previous books, Civilization and The Ascent of Money, so I was looking forward to this one but it's a thumbs down I'm afraid. Scopri The Square and the Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power di Ferguson, Niall: spedizione gratuita per i clienti Prime e per ordini a partire da 29€ spediti da Amazon. However I feel this could be because the concepts Niall explores in this book network science is relatively absent from most history books perhaps making this a more difficult book for the casual history reader. _Technologies come and go. Yes, that’s right – I’ve just compared premier historian Niall Ferguson’s latest book to a juvenile game where the sole purpose is to connect dots to complete a happy picture, like a smiling triceratops, posing superhero, or fluffy bunny. Being a member of a network gives influence to an affiliate while a hie. They just understand and discuss them in a different way and don't pretend to be quantitative about it. This is a big book in many ways. The Square And The Tower (a reference to the center of the medieval city of Siena in Italy) will certainly not be the only attempt to reckon with our contemporary world's place in history, but it will definitely be considered one of the more thought-provoking and provocative. Discover lots of new and upcoming nonfiction reads this spring According to Niall Ferguson’s latest book - ‘The Square and the Tower. If you like Niall Ferguson's work, then you will probably like it, but I wouldn't say it's anything revolutionary. 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. does not mean they aren't talking about networks. In sum, this seemed to be a lazy effort. This book, by the always fascinating Niall Ferguson (though his main product for sale is always himself), analyzes capsule summaries of episodes from history, in order to negatively contrast spontaneous, networked action (the “square”) with hierarchical control (the “tower”). However as shown in Niall Ferguson’s study of networks that what we’re experiencing at the moment is only the latest, and disruptive, action In a play as old as Gutenberg and the creation of the printing press. Many of Ferguson’s books have been reviewed here earlier. 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Just because they aren't talking about nodes, density, structure, etc. Download and keep this book for Free with a 30 day Trial. Niall Ferguson is a British historian who takes on complex issues. The instant New York Times bestseller. Niall Ferguson's The Square and the Tower is a caution against seeing our new, networked world as an unalloyed blessings. In sum, this seemed to be a lazy effort on his part to keep his publisher happy. ‘From the Freemasons to Facebook’ is an apt subtitle. I have never heard of the network theory before and I am still enjoying that my first touch with it was through this work. According to Niall Ferguson’s latest book - ‘The Square and the Tower. The writing is dry and it was a struggle to finish. He is known for his provocative, contrarian views. Not very good. His voice is clear & unapologetic about his conclusions and his methods - the use of social network analysis - to demonstrate the power of relationships & communication by various people in different contexts builds a powerful argument that our obsession with social networks today is built on a familiar story played out i. Niall Ferguson manages to deeply explore the intricacies of social networks and their political and economic contexts whilst also creating a highly readable historical account. The writing is dry and it was a struggle to finish. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Everyday low prices and free delivery on … Most situations in life, however, involve a…, Making Software: What Really Works, and Why We Believe It, Many claims are made about how certain tools, technologies, and practices improve software development. In 2004, he was named as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. January 16th 2018 Subtitled ‘Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power‘, this is described as ‘a whole new way of imagining the world’ as it’s possible that we’re missing information about networks because it’s not recorded in historical archives. Further, the conclusion seemed to indicate that society has more to fear from wild networking than from hierarchies, but I am not convinced of that at all. The book is well written but the narrative frequently forced, and the efforts to present events of history as fundamentally about networks can be contrived. A history of Europe since Napoleon, covering all of the main topics of that period. The science and history behind networks was fascinating, and it was interesting to see how the interaction between networks and hierarchies shaped history. The Square and the Tower is published by Allen Lane. 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. An incredibly interesting and informative book, I can get the negative reviews about this work as it's certainly a harder read than his other works. The book is ambitious and makes some interesting points, but it suffers from a ve. Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson, read by John Sackville. 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The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson, Networks (The Square) Tower (Hierarchies) interestingly Ferguson points out that networks historically thought of as the powerless unwashed masses did in fact disrupt Hierarchies throughout history on a regular basis for instance "The French American and Russian revolutions" to name a couple, even Henry Kissinger the consummate professional powerless as an individual but then hired by the US Presidential office and suddenly master in the tower of power. I usually enjoy this author’s work, but not this reread. The first quarter of the book is truly captivating. The organization is not good…the chapters are too short and not in-depth enough and are inconsistent throughout at tying things together. But what I found in this book is rather different, being a run through history in what seemed to me a disjointed way, albeit very detailed, with network diagrams and many footnotes. I greatly enjoyed Ferguson's previous books, Civilization and The Ascent of Money, so I was looking forward to this one but it's a thumbs down I'm afraid. The book is ambitious and makes some interesting points, but it suffers from a very typical problem when you superimpose a theory ex post facto. To order a copy for for £21.25, go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 8646. The insurance industry’s actuarial tables and the gambler’s roulette wheel both yield to the tools of probability theory. Ferguson then goes through a fascinating narrative about the Masons and how networks in various parts of history changed things in remarkable ways. These associations between people can be broadly classified into two – networks and hierarchies. Highy recommended. From the very beginnings of civilizations, networks and hierarchies exerted their push and pull on the way history flowed. It's about orders from on high. Most history is hierarchical: it's about popes, presidents, and prime ministers. Like most of their like they were a) secretive a. The idea of contrasting hierarchies with networks and putting this into an historical context must have seemed like a awfully good one for a book but actually there just isn’t' enough flesh on the bone. Welcome back. Every time I read this guy I walk away with a new perspective on history. It's about orders from on high. Imagine this book where I do all this to claim that history is all about "tools" from rocks to guns to pens or computers. The inter-personal relationships in an organization can be hard or soft as demanded by the purpose for which the people have joined it. I think presenting the idea of networks within history as something no one else has done is really disingenuous, and only works if you are defining both "history" and "network theory" very narrowly. The organization is not good…the chapters are too short and not in-depth enough and are inconsistent throughout at tying things together. Long book even though the content was good. I pick a few dozens of random events from thousands of years of human history - let's say from the time of Hamurabi through to the rise of three monotheistic religions, episodes from Chinese and Indian histories before the Renaissance and the wars and the technology boom but also including some truly random ones like the Cambridge Five, the Pound ERM attack etc. Oct 20, 2017 - Written by Niall Ferguson, narrated by John Sackville. Ferguson presents here a brief introduction to network theory accompanied by illustrations of its application ranging over the last 500 years but focused on recent events such as the internet explosion, 9/11, the 2007/8 crash and the 2016 presidential election. “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” state Marx and Engels in ‘The Communist Manifesto’. “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” state Marx and Engels in ‘The Communist Manifesto’. He does mostly economic history but has a true gift for seeing the big picture in the evolution of human progress as a whole. But then it gets a bit repetitive and overwhelming with misc details (?). “we shall quickly find ourselves about as important to the algorithms as animals currently are to us.”, “In a time of chaos, it is the micro-manager who ascends”, Books Read By Photon In A Double Slit In His Lifetime, Curated Reads: Nonfiction Books to Intrigue and Inspire. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published This is a classic Niall Ferguson book, meaning that he takes a really wide, sweeping view of history over a very long period and tries to synthesise it under a particular theme. However, it was not my favorite from this author. It hasn't stopped him from doing a staggering amount of research - a third of the book is given to notes, bibliography and references - but it. Niall Ferguson is a British historian who takes on complex issues. Suppose I take this enormously broad term and at most break into two or some more categories - the tower equivalent could be "tools used to dominate" (other human beings or elements) and the square equivalent could be "tools used to cooperate". Compra The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook. I was four hundred pages into Niall Ferguson’s The Square and the Tower before it paid off. We’d love your help. When people interact with each other, some etiquette is required to be maintained. Two theses flow from this, one stated early on, the other only explicitly presented at the end. Read honest and … His voice is clear & unapologetic about his conclusions and his methods - the use of social network analysis - to demonstrate the power of relationships & communication by various people in different contexts builds a powerful argument that our obsession with social networks today is built on a familiar story played out in previous generations.