For good or ill, Western civilization gave the world the way it works, the way it thinks, and the way much of it now governs itself. Most people now live – or aspire to live – in a manner that is unmistakably an invention of the West. Yet, only a few hundred years ago, the nations of what we now know as Western Europe hardly indicated their future greatness.
In Civilization: The West and the Rest, bestselling author Niall Ferguson argues that while the Rest relied on ancient techniques to maintain their outwardly superior empires, the West developed six powerful new ideas that the others lacked: competition, science, democracy, consumerism, medicine, and work ethic.
The talk will be held in the library's Boston Room.
