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.
