Why the West Rules - for Now

The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future

By: Ian Morris

Narrated by: Antony Ferguson

Sometime around 1750, English entrepreneurs unleashed the astounding energies of steam and coal, and the world was forever changed. The emergence of factories, railroads, and gunboats propelled the West’s rise to power in the nineteenth century, and the development of computers and nuclear weapons in the 20th century secured its global supremacy.

Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, many worry that the emerging economic power of China and India spells the end of the West as a superpower. In order to understand this possibility, we need to look back in time. Why has the West dominated the globe for the past 200 years, and will its power last? Describing the patterns of human history, the archaeologist and historian Ian Morris offers surprising new answers to both questions. It is not, he reveals, differences of race or culture, or even the strivings of great individuals that explain Western dominance. It is the effects of geography on the everyday efforts of ordinary people as they deal with crises of resources, disease, migration, and climate. As geography and human ingenuity continue to interact, the world will change in astonishing ways, transforming Western rule in the process.

Deeply researched and brilliantly argued, Why the West Rules - for Now spans 50,000 years of history and offers fresh insights on nearly every page. The book brings together the latest findings across disciplines - from ancient history to neuroscience - not only to explain why the West came to rule the world but also to predict what the future will bring in the next hundred years.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2010 Ian Morris (P)2010 Tantor

Critic reviews

"A formidable, richly engrossing effort to determine why Western institutions dominate the world." ( Kirkus)

Compelling and infuriating take at World History

After an extensive first third of the book dealing with prehistory to dispel any still possible existing claims of racial superiority between East and West, the book becomes mainly a comparative history between "East" and "West".
Of course this description does not do full justice to the scope and ambition of the author, whose main theory is that progress in history is a product of geography and social development, with one feeding on each other, creating both splendor and collapse; he comes up with an index to measure civilizational development and concludes that there is no foundation for one culture claiming superiority over another.
Mr. Morris wildly overreaches in staking a claim for geography as the main driver of history: he concludes that great men, and culture in general, have played no crucial part in civilization, and that history would have taken pretty much the same course whatever these men or women did: would really history have been the same without Napoleon, George Washington or Isaac Newton? This gives his theory a sometimes disturbingly materialistic and deterministic bent.
His definitions of East and West are highly debatable: since for him culture is not important, he does not make a difference of the split between Christianity and Islam, and sees both as part of the West; obviously, he does not make a big deal of the subsequent schism between Catholics and Protestants. Just look at the huge differences between Europe and the Arab World, or the US and Latin America and the claim that these divergences have not had a major role in shaping history seem wildly unrealistic, .
That said, Mr. Morris is a compelling narrator, and in some cases his arguments are definitely persuasive. The close attention he gives to both the rise of the East and the West provide a much needed balance to existing world histories, and shed light on the interconnectedness of the World starting in Antiquity. His final thoughts are quite dazzling. Well worth a listen.

Are all humans greedy parasites or just the West?

Ancient China=the center of the world
Islamic Egypt=the Gem of the west
Western success=luck or greed
human beings=parasites
and guess how it ends... climate change.

Tough to finish.

not entirely suited for audiio book

If you could sum up Why the West Rules - for Now in three words, what would they be?

survey of whys

Would you recommend Why the West Rules - for Now to your friends? Why or why not?

depends on the friend...parts of the book are heavily dependent on references to charts and graphs which obviously are not available through listening, though available on his web site. I'm interested enough in the subject to listen through this, but parts are a real slog. Other parts do work well, illuminate the subject, and even are dryly humorous.

Any additional comments?

I really enjoyed Ian Morris' book, War! What Is It Good For?: Conflict and the Progress of Civilization from Primates to Robots, highly recommend that.

Deep history, Interesting projection of the Future

I loved the way Ian goes back to the very begining of man - Out of Africa. It was very informative to me to get this broad persopective on the evolution of our race and our society. And he makes a very compelling argument for what the next 100 years will bring. Loved the last chapter.

An excellent book on the history of civilization

I grew annoyed with the constant comparison of East and west, because I do not think that question is a very interesting one, but I did expect it going in, given the title. I think the book could have been better if it did not fixate on that question.

The author does a great job of trying to be a neutral observer instead of a part of the "western" civilization and treating all civilizations with scientific neutrality. This book is full of interesting details on civilizations throughout history and comparisons among them, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in understanding how the world got to be the way it is, and why empires rose and fell, and to anyone interested in predicting the future