The Square and the Tower
Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power
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The Square and the Tower
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Narrated by:
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John Sackville
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By:
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Niall Ferguson
About this listen
Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Square and the Tower by Niall Ferguson.
What if everything we thought we knew about history was wrong? From the global best-selling author of Empire, The Ascent of Money and Civilization, this is a whole new way of looking at the world.
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 21st 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. Those looking forward to a utopia of interconnected 'netizens' may therefore be disappointed. For networks are 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.
©2017 Niall Ferguson (P)2017 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Square and the Tower
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- ayman
- 09-09-18
Long and chatty book with almost no value
In the intro the author gives a promise to deliver a lot of stuff but the book are just collection of information that has a very week connection with each other , he may called that as “ network” !!! But anyone can link any group of events and put the keyword “ network” to make a value of a chatty long writing like this
For me indeed NOT recommended book
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- James
- 14-09-19
Almost Great
Others have mentioned the main complaint and I can't say I disagree with it - the book is a bit all over the place. The idea of networks vs hierarchies as a heuristic for understanding current and historical social systems is a very interesting one, and was my first introduction to network theory.
Where the book falls down however, is in the author's love of going off on a tangent, or rather spending an undue amount of time on what I imagine must be stories that the author finds interesting, irrespective of their value to the book. All of them are, as I'm sure the author would argue, linked to the central theme, but these links can often be tenuous and leave the reader wondering if there's a point to all this they should be seeing. Maybe there is.
Overall, I can't help but feel that a stronger editorial hand would have produced a firmer narrative. While I wouldn't turn people away from this book, I would advise them that the value in reading The Square and the Tower is very much up to them to find
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- C R Dempsey
- 07-10-20
Excellent book
A really interesting subject, great detail, very well presented. I would highly recommend this audio book.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Tony
- 22-07-19
Applying network theory to history
Ferguson writes with his usual clarity. Network theory is a promising framework through which to look at the history of revolutions.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Robert
- 17-07-19
The Square and the Tower
With a strong background in History, I found this book a magnum opus from Niall Ferguson. I enjoyed listening to how Ferguson draws from history to illustrate the conceptual clash between networks and hierarchies.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- P A Cavanagh
- 22-07-20
A thought provoking alternative view of history
Naill Ferguson gives us a grand tour of hierarchies and networks of history. Like his earlier work the Ascent of Money, he shows how hierarchies and networks have formed the hidden backbone of the world we know today.
I am a fan of his no nonsense approach to history, his depth of knowledge and the insights into areas of history that main stream historians fear to tread.
I enjoyed this book, and it has encouraged me to delve deeper into the fascinating world of networks and how they shape our world.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mr. B. Lynch
- 05-04-18
Inspired and frightened
Conflict between central power and diffuse networks as old as time and when balance of power shifts conflict follows. Frightening when we consider American chaos as world allegiances realign and non rational actors hold power.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Iain Leedham
- 22-12-19
Bought by mistake
I really should read the stuff about a book but my eyesight is not very good and I just assumed that this was a novel, it's not
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Martin
- 08-12-19
Very informative but hard to focus
It was my second book of Mr. Ferguson after the thrilling book about Money. Overall it was very informative - guiding through the various networks over the ages and explaining their role in history. It is a great value.
Unfortunately, for me personally the reading was done in very monotonous way because of which it was very hard to focus.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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- Roy Lauder
- 11-04-20
the pressures of governance
A brilliant book that describes the perpetual anarchic power of networks (the square)to produce good and bad over the efforts of man to create order through structure (tower). Their coexistence is essential to our future. One is left wondering if organised power is needed now to reestablish order.
Very thought provoking and very well written.
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