Niall Ferguson Libri

Porta d'accesso al «secolo breve», la prima guerra mondiale, che avrebbe dovuto porre fine a tutte le guerre, si rivelò una tragedia con oltre nove milioni di vittime, infliggendo un profondo trauma all'Europa della Belle Époque e trasformando il suo ruolo nella storia mondiale. Questo conflitto fu il culmine della corsa agli armamenti delle potenze europee, in particolare della Germania, e rappresentò il risultato avvelenato dell'imperialismo e di forze storiche così potenti che nessun politico o militare riuscì a contrastarle, configurandosi come un ineluttabile Armageddon. Tuttavia, il noto storico Niall Ferguson si interroga se il Reich tedesco fosse realmente una minaccia per l'ordine europeo e se il conflitto fosse davvero inevitabile. Attraverso un'analisi interdisciplinare, esamina dati economici, testi di poeti di guerra, articoli di quotidiani dell'epoca e documenti diplomatici, sfatando miti e interrogando la nostra comprensione della guerra. Si chiede se l'opinione pubblica accolse la guerra con entusiasmo e quale ruolo avesse la propaganda. Se le condizioni nelle trincee erano così terribili, perché gli uomini continuarono a combattere? Chi vinse la pace e a chi toccò pagare il prezzo della guerra? Infine, le conclusioni di Ferguson rivelano una verità inquietante: la prima guerra mondiale non fu solo una tragedia, ma il più grave errore della storia moderna.

From the bestselling author of The Ascent of Money and The Square and the Tower "Prodigiously researched but also splendidly written-clear and vivid and precise." --The Wall Street Journal Drawing on more than ten thousand hitherto unavailable letters and diary entries, bestselling author Niall Ferguson tells the story of Siegmund Warburg, a complex man who was as much a psychologist, a politician, and an actor-manager as a banker. An obsessive perfectionist with an aversion to excessive risk, Warburg-and the S. G. Warburg firm-adopted a financial philosophy that was the antithesis of the debt-fueled, algorithm-driven banking of our time. In High Financier, Niall Ferguson 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.

No American statesman has been as revered and as reviled as Henry Kissinger. Hailed by some as the 'indispensable man', whose advice has been sought by every president from Kennedy to Obama, Kissinger has also attracted immense hostility from critics who have cast him as an amoral Machiavellian - the ultimate cold-blooded 'realist'. Niall Ferguson has created an extraordinary panorama of Kissinger's world, and a paradigm-shifting reappraisal of the man. Only through knowledge of Kissinger's early life can we understand his debt to the philosophy of idealism. And only by tracing his rise, fall and revival as an adviser to John F. Kennedy, Nelson Rockefeller and, finally, Richard Nixon can we appreciate the magnitude of his contribution to the theory of diplomacy, grand strategy and nuclear deterrence

Astonishing in its scope and erudition, this is the magnum opus that Niall Ferguson's numerous acclaimed works have been leading up to. In it, he grapples with perhaps the most challenging questions of modern history: Why was the twentieth century history's bloodiest by far? Why did unprecedented material progress go hand in hand with total war and genocide? His quest for new answers takes him from the walls of Nanjing to the bloody beaches of Normandy, from the economics of ethnic cleansing to the politics of imperial decline and fall. The result, as brilliantly written as it is vital, is a great historian's masterwork.

THE FOLLOW UP TO THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER THE AGE OF AI In his final book, the late Henry Kissinger joins forces with two leading technologists to mount a profound exploration of the epochal challenges and opportunities presented by the revolution in Artificial Intelligence. As it absorbs data, gains agency, and intermediates between humans and reality, AI (Artificial Intelligence) will help us to address enormous crises, from climate change to geopolitical conflicts to income inequality. It might well solve some of the greatest mysteries of our universe and elevate the human spirit to unimaginable heights. But it will also pose challenges on a scale and of an intensity that we have never seen - usurping our power of independent judgment and action, testing our relationship with the divine, and perhaps even spurring a new phase in human evolution. The last book of elder statesman Henry Kissinger, written with technologists Craig Mundie and Eric Schmidt, Genesis charts a course between blind faith and unjustified fear as it outlines an effective strategy for navigating the age of AI.

Niall Ferguson recreates the excitement, brutality and adventure of the British Empire, showing on a vast canvas how the British Empire in the 19th century spearheaded real globalization with steampower, telegraphs, guns, engineers, missionaries and millions of settlers.

Chronicles the evolution of finance from its origins in Mesopotamia to the modern world's most recent upheavals, covering such topics as the stock market bubble that prompted the French Revolution and the theories behind common investment vehicles.

In the sweep of human history, the European Union stands out as one of humankind's most ambitious endeavors. It encompasses half a billion people, twenty-seven member states, twenty-three languages, and an economy valued at over $15 trillion. Modern Europe's stunning achievements aside, its sovereign debt crisis has shaken the world's largest political and economic union to its core. Can the federal institutions and shared values of Europeans meet the challenges of debt crisis that are as much political as economic? Or, are Europe's current woes indicative of a series of deep structural faults that will doom the European Union to breakup and failure? In this edition of the Munk Debates — Canada's premier international debate series — former EU commissioner Lord Peter Mandelson, French-German EU parliament leader of the Greens, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, German Euro skeptic and bestselling author Josef Joffe, and Scottish historian, Niall Ferguson debate one of the most pressing issues of our day: has the great European experiment failed? This electrifying debate featuring some of Europe's most outspoken parliamentary figures and academics is guaranteed to be an unforgettable and riveting verbal sparring match on the question that will determine the future of world's economy.

The Mythology surrounding the Rothschilds' wealth and power is two centuries old. Now the historical reality, long buried in the bank's archives, is revealed for the first time by Oxford historian and bestselling author Niall Ferguson in this definitive account of a legendary banking dynasty's rise to power.

"Civilization" is the definitive history of Western civilization's rise to global dominance--and the "killer applications" that made this improbable ascent possible: competition, science, the rule of law, consumerism, modern medicine, and the work ethic.

Be it resolved, the liberal international order is over... Since the end of World War II, global affairs have been shaped by three broad trends: the increasing free movement of people and goods, international rules setting, and a broad appreciation of the mutual benefits of a more interconnected, interdependent world. Together these factors defined the liberal international order and sustained an era of rising global prosperity and declining international conflict. But is this order now being supplanted by a new global reality; one defined by the assertion of national borders, national interests and protectionist trade polices? More fundamentally, is liberal internationalism a historical aberration; the product of a unique set of forces that are now in retreat? Or, can it survive these challenges and remain the defining rules-based system of the future? The twentieth semi-annual Munk Debate, held on April 28th, 2017, pits prominent historian Niall Ferguson against CNN's Fareed Zakaria to debate the future of liberal internationalism.

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. This extract has been specially selected and adapted from Ferguson's bestselling The Pity of War (1998), a radical reassessment of the First World War that exploded many myths surrounding the conflict.

What if Britain had stayed out of the First World War? What if Germany had won the Second? Historians have traditionally refused to ask questions of the past, preferring to assume that whatever happened was inevitable. But Virtual History challenges this complacency as leading historians apply "counterfactual" arguments to decisive moments in modern history.

Disasters are inherently unpredictable, and pandemics, like earthquakes and financial crises, do not follow historical patterns that could help us anticipate them. When disaster strikes, we should be better prepared than past societies, armed with scientific knowledge. However, many developed countries mishandled their responses to a new pathogen from China. While poor leadership, particularly among populist rulers, is often blamed, the COVID-19 crisis revealed deeper issues within the administrative state and economic elites, who had become shortsighted over time. The questions arise: why were warnings from experts ignored for so long, and why did only some nations learn from past outbreaks like SARS and MERS? The reliance on 'the science' often proved to be misguided. Drawing from history, economics, and network science, this work serves as a global analysis of the pandemic year. Niall Ferguson examines the underlying pathologies that have plagued societies, from imperial arrogance to bureaucratic inefficiency and online divisions. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a critical failure for many countries, emphasizing the need to learn from history to prevent a decline that could become irreversible.

'The most brilliant historian of his generation' The Times Most history is hierarchical- it's about popes, presidents, and prime ministers. But what if that's simply because they create the historical archives? What if we are missing equally powerful but less visible networks - leaving them to the conspiracy theorists, with their dreams of all-powerful Illuminati? The twenty-first century has been hailed as the Networked Age. But in The Square and the Tower Niall Ferguson argues that social networks are nothing new. From the printers and preachers who made the Reformation to the freemasons who led the American Revolution, it was the networkers who disrupted the old order of popes and kings. Far from being novel, our era is the Second Networked Age, with the computer in the role of the printing press. But networks have a dark side, prone to clustering, contagions, and even outages. And the conflicts of the past already have unnerving parallels today, in the time of Facebook, Islamic State and Trumpworld.

Is America an empire? The government insists it is not, despite military conquests and over 750 installations worldwide. George W. Bush claims, "America has never been an empire," while Defense Secretary Rumsfeld asserts, "We don’t seek empires." Niall Ferguson challenges this view in his analysis, arguing that the U.S. is indeed the most powerful empire in history, akin to the British Empire of a century ago. The U.S. aims to globalize free markets, the rule of law, and representative government. However, Ferguson points out that Americans often resist the long-term commitments of resources necessary for transforming rogue regimes and failed states. He describes this as an empire suffering from attention deficit disorder, imposing unrealistic timelines on its interventions. Moreover, Ferguson highlights a troubling denial of the scale of America's global responsibilities, warning that the repercussions will be felt both internationally and domestically. In a compelling conclusion, he cautions that this chronic short-sightedness extends to domestic issues as well, suggesting that when overstretch occurs, it will reveal vulnerabilities within the American colossus itself.

The decline of the West is something that has long been prophesied. Symptoms of decline are all around us today: slowing growth, crushing debts, ageing populations. But what exactly is amiss with Western civilization? The author argues that the institutions that were once the four pillars of Western society - representative government, and more. schovat popis

Pojednání přibližuje příčiny i samotný průběh 1. světové války a naznačuje její důsledky. Autor zpochybňuje tradiční výklad a vžité představy o válce. Tento globální válečný konflikt hodnotí autor především z hlediska britských mocenských zájmů a cílů. Hlavní podíl na vzniku 1.světové války měla, podle něj, Velká Británie, která podcenila německý potenciál. Z kontinentálního konfliktu se stala válka světová, neboť Velká Británie si počínala velice nekvalifikovaně, což si vyžádalo zásah Spojených států amerických. K válce tak došlo na základě chybných rozhodnutí vedoucích činitelů! Celý tento válečný konflikt se zrodil z osobní pošetilosti, jež měla katastrofální následky!

Katastrofy jsou ze své podstaty těžko předvídatelné. Neexistuje žádný historický cyklus, který by nám pomohl předvídat příští pandemie, zemětřesení, požáry, finanční krize nebo války. Když však katastrofa udeří, měli bychom být připraveni lépe než Římané, když vybuchl Vesuv,nebo středověcí Italové, když udeřila černá smrt. Koneckonců máme na své straně vědu. Přesto byla v roce 2020 reakce mnoha vyspělých zemí na nový virus z Číny špatně zvládnutá. Proč? Proč se jen několik asijských zemí poučilo ze SARS a MERS? Autor tvrdí, že pandemie odhalila hlubší patologie – patologie, které byly patrné již v našich reakcích na dřívější katastrofy. Kniha čerpá z mnoha oborů, včetně ekonomie, kliodynamiky a vědy o sítích, a nabízí nejen historii, ale i obecnou teorii katastrof a ukazuje, proč se naše stále byrokratičtější a složitější systémy s nimi vyrovnávají čím dál hůře.

Niall Ferguson hat als erster Historiker die verschlüsselte Privatkorrespondenz der Rothschilds im 19. Jahrhundert ausgewertet. Er erweckt ihre Welt mit meisterhafter Geschichtsschreibung zum Leben, einschließlich ihrer Visionen, Pläne, Freundschaften, Feindschaften und Erfolge.

Seit dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs prägte eine zunehmend freiheitliche Weltordnung das politische Geschehen und ermöglichte eine Ära wachsenden globalen Wohlstands und abnehmender internationaler Konflikte. Zum ersten Mal seit dieser letzten Kriegsgeneration erschüttert uns eine neue globale Realität, die nicht mehr durch feste Grenzen, klare nationale Interessen und gesicherte Handelspolitik definiert ist. Der renommierte Geschichtsprofessor Niall Ferguson und der einflussreiche Politikberater Fareed Zakaria loten aus, wer die eigentlichen Nutznießer der Globalisierung sind und zeichnen zwei grundverschiedene Szenarien – eine aufschlussreiche und zukunftsweisende Debatte.

Die erste große historisch-politische Gesamtdeutung nach der Epochenzäsur 1989 beschreibt die künftige Rollenverteilung von Politik und Wirtschaft in der Demokratie. Der freie Markt gilt vielfach als die einzige Möglichkeit, politische und soziale Spannungen abzubauen, Wohlstand für alle zu fördern und demokratische Stabilität zu erreichen. Regiert also tatsächlich das Geld die Welt? Analytisch und scharfsinnig packt Niall Ferguson nach seiner provokanten Studie über den Ersten Weltkrieg erneut ein heißes Eisen an. Vor dem Hintergrund der Geschichte der letzten beiden Jahrhunderte kommt er zu einem überraschenden und provozierenden Urteil: Weder garantiert eine blühende Wirtschaft ein konfliktfreies Zusammenleben noch waren ökonomische Faktoren wirklich entscheidend für den Gang der Ereignisse. Wichtiger denn je ist die Politik, die ihren Einfluss zurückerobern muss, um zukünftige Gefahren für die Demokratie abzuwehren.