Ferguson argues however that the British Empire was preferable to the alternatives: The 19th-century empire undeniably pioneered free trade, free capital movements and, with the abolition of slavery, free labour. In 1998, Ferguson published The Pity of War: Explaining World War One, which with the help of research assistants he was able to write in just five months. The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook The fourth and final lecture, Civil and Uncivil Societies, focuses on institutions (outside the political, economic and legal realms) designed to preserve and transmit particular knowledge and values. They were engaged in the slave trade. "Globalization in historical perspective: The political dimension", in Michael D. Bordo, Alan M. Taylor and Jeffrey G. Williamson (eds.).

"Metternich and the Rothschilds: A reappraisal" in Andrea Hamel and Edward Timms (eds.). In the 20th century too the empire more than justified its own existence. , ( That the pre-1914 arms race was consuming ever larger portions of national budgets at an unsustainable rate (Ferguson claims that the only limitations on more military spending before 1914 were political, not economic). This stunning fact is lost, he regrets, on a generation that has supplanted history's sweep with a feeble-minded relativism that holds "all civilisations as somehow equal". About Niall Ferguson. [36], The books were widely acclaimed by some historians,[78] although they did receive some criticism. And the faint-hearted—those who were so quick to pull out of Iraq in 2009 that they allowed the rump of al-Qaeda to morph into Isis. [125] The remarks were widely criticised for being offensive, factually inaccurate, and a distortion of Keynes' ideas. In May 2012, the BBC announced Niall Ferguson was to present its annual Reith Lectures – a prestigious series of radio lectures which were first broadcast in 1948. "A bolt from the blue? Likewise, Ferguson has often attacked the work of the German historian Michael Stürmer, who argued that it was Germany's geographical situation in Central Europe that determined the course of German history. Carr adds that "Ferguson sees the recent establishment of a department of Islamic studies in his (Oxford college) as another symptom of 'the creeping Islamicization of a decadent Christendom'," and in a 2004 lecture at the American Enterprise Institute entitled 'The End of Europe? The Times would require an abject correction if something like that slipped through. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Oxford in 1989: his dissertation was titled "Business and Politics in the German Inflation: Hamburg 1914–1924".[17]. ", Ferguson proposed a modified version of group selection that history can be explained by the evolution of human networks. In the lecture, Ferguson says young voters should be more supportive of government austerity measures if they do not wish to pay further down the line for the profligacy of the baby boomer generation.[39]. "A stupendous achievement, a triumph of historical research and imagination. From Crimea to World War II, wars repeatedly threatened the stability of the Rothschilds' worldwide empire. "[55] In a negative review of The Idealist, the American journalist Michael O'Donnell questioned Ferguson's interpretation of Kissinger's actions leading up to Nixon's election as President. Something went wrong.

None of this happened. [112], Ferguson was an attendee of the 2012 Bilderberg Group meeting, where he was a speaker on economic policy.[113]. [76] Weinberg accused Ferguson of distorting both German and British history and ignoring any evidence that did not fit with his thesis that Britain should never have fought Germany, stating that The Pity of War was interesting as a historical provocation, but was not persuasive as history. Do it. "[141], Ferguson married journalist Sue Douglas in 1994 after meeting in 1987 when she was his editor at The Sunday Times. ), Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World, ( : The Munk Debate on China, Is This the End of the Liberal International Order? On the rise of Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump, Ferguson was quoted in early 2016: "If you bother to read some of the serious analysis of Trump's support, you realize that it's a very fragile thing and highly unlikely to deliver what he needs in the crucial first phase of the primaries ... By the time we get to March–April, it's all over. In 1989, Ferguson worked as a research fellow at Christ's College, Cambridge. Hardcover Audible Audiobook But if the effect of that is to bring people in that country economic and political freedom, to raise their standard of living, to increase their life expectancy, then don't rule it out.[20]. Nonsense, says Niall Ferguson. "How (not) to pay for the war: Traditional finance and total war" in Roger Chickering and Stig Förster (eds.). In May 2009, Ferguson became involved in a high-profile exchange of views with economist Paul Krugman arising out of a panel discussion hosted by PEN/New York Review on 30 April 2009, regarding the U.S. economy. 76 The book also includes Kissinger's early evaluation of the Vietnam war and his efforts to negotiate with the North Vietnamese in Paris.

'The most brilliant British historian of his generation ... Ferguson examines the roles of "pirates, planters, missionaries, mandarins, bankers and bankrupts" in the creation of history's largest empire ... he writes with splendid panache ... and a seemingly effortless, debonair wit' Andrew Roberts, 'Dazzling ... wonderfully readable' New York Review of Books, 'A remarkably readable précis of the whole British imperial story - triumphs, deceits, decencies, kindnesses, cruelties and all' Jan Morris, 'Empire is a pleasure to read and brims with insights and intelligence' Sunday Times. ',[102], Ferguson struck a similarly Spenglerian note, conjuring the term 'impire' to depict a process in which a 'political entity, instead of expanding outwards towards its periphery, exporting power, implodes—when the energies come from outside into that entity'. [24][25] Ferguson responded in his column[26] saying, "Re-reading my emails now, I am struck by their juvenile, jocular tone. Ferguson writes and lectures on international history, economic and financial history and British and American imperialism. was broadcast as a six-part series on Channel 4 in March and April 2011. In the summer on 1989, while travelling in Berlin, he wrote an article for a British newspaper with the provisional headline "The Berlin Wall is Crumbling", but it was not published.[33]. In 2017, Ferguson stated that the West had insufficiently heeded the rise of militant Islam and its global consequences in the same way it failed to predict that the rise of Lenin would lead to the further spread of communism and conflict around the world[105]: Ask yourself how effectively we in the West have responded to the rise of militant Islam since the Iranian Revolution unleashed its Shi’ite variant and since 9/11 revealed the even more aggressive character of Sunni Islamism. [2] Previously, he was a professor at Harvard University and New York University, visiting professor at New College of the Humanities and senior research fellow at Jesus College, Oxford. In the second lecture, The Darwinian Economy, Ferguson reflects on the causes of the global financial crisis, and erroneous conclusions that many people have drawn from it about the role of regulation, and asks whether regulation is in fact "the disease of which it purports to be the cure". Ferguson has received honorary degrees from the University of Buckingham, Macquarie University (Australia) and Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (Chile). In an interview with The Guardian, Ferguson spoke about his love for Ali, who, he writes in the preface, "understands better than anyone I know what Western civilisation really means – and what it still has to offer the world".[20]. 334 The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” Then I added: “Some opposition research on Mr O might also be worthwhile”—a reference to the leader of the protests. "[10], In 2018 Ferguson naturalised as a US citizen. [14], In an interview, Ferguson described his relationship with the left: "No, they love being provoked by me! "We’re not imperialistic. He wrote, "He offers a mix of metaphor and what purports to be a new science. . A three-part television adaptation, Niall Ferguson’s Networld, will air on PBS in March 2020.