
The Square and the Tower
Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook
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Narrated by:
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Elliot Hill
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By:
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Niall Ferguson
About this listen
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
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.
©2018 Niall Ferguson (P)2018 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Captivating and compelling. Whether describing the surprisingly ineffective 18th century network of the mysterious Illuminati that continue to be the subject of crank conspiracy theorists or the shockingly effective 20th century network of Cambridge University spies working for the Soviets, Ferguson manages both to tell a good story and provide important insight into the specific qualities that power successful networks.” (The New York Times)
“Remarkably interesting...always surprising and always thought-provoking in the places and entities it chooses to pause and examine, everything from the Mafia to the Soviet Union of Stalin.... 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)
"Niall Ferguson has again written a brilliant book.... His short chapters are lucid snapshots of a world history of Towers and Squares, filled with gracefully deployed learning.... The Square and the Tower is always readable, intelligent, original. You can swallow a chapter a night before sleep and your dreams will overflow with scenes of Stendhal’s The Red and the Black, Napoleon, Kissinger. In 400 pages you will have restocked your mind. Do it." (The Wall Street Journal)
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Sad in its lack of creativity
- By Uri Pilichowski on 11-16-21
By: Martin Indyk
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The Man Who Ran Washington
- The Life and Times of James A. Baker III
- By: Peter Baker, Susan Glasser
- Narrated by: Michael Quinlan
- Length: 26 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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For a quarter-century, from the end of Watergate to the aftermath of the Cold War, no Republican won the presidency without his help or ran the White House without his advice. James Addison Baker III was the indispensable man for four presidents because he understood better than anyone how to make Washington work at a time when America was shaping events around the world. The Man Who Ran Washington is a pause-resisting portrait of a power broker who influenced America's destiny for generations.
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We Need Baker Now More Than Ever
- By @Gazi2a on 01-08-21
By: Peter Baker, and others
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The Eagle and the Hart
- The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV
- By: Helen Castor
- Narrated by: Helen Castor
- Length: 20 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Richard of Bordeaux and Henry of Bolingbroke, cousins born just three months apart, were ten years old when Richard became king of England. They were thirty-two when Henry deposed him and became king in his place. Now, the story behind one of the strangest and most fateful events in English history (and the inspiration behind Shakespeare’s most celebrated history plays) is brought to vivid life by the acclaimed author of Blood and Roses, Helen Castor.
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A thrilling read
- By Rich C on 11-30-24
By: Helen Castor
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The Wages of Destruction
- The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
- By: Adam Tooze
- Narrated by: Adam Tooze, Simon Vance
- Length: 30 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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An extraordinary mythology has grown up around the Third Reich that hovers over political and moral debate even today. Adam Tooze's controversial book challenges the conventional economic interpretations of that period.
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Book is good but contains bias
- By Heinz-Jürgen MacSwain on 01-29-24
By: Adam Tooze
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Spies
- The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West
- By: Calder Walton
- Narrated by: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart
- Length: 20 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Spies is the history of the secret war that Russia and the West have been waging for a century. Espionage, sabotage, and subversion were the Kremlin’s means to equalize the imbalance of resources between the East and West before, during, and after the Cold War. There was nothing “unprecedented” about Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. It was simply business as usual, new means used for old ends.
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A detailed history, inexcusably marred by politics
- By Thomas Randolph on 08-12-23
By: Calder Walton
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Empires of the Sky
- Zeppelins, Airplanes, and Two Men's Epic Duel to Rule the World
- By: Alexander Rose
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 22 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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At the dawn of the 20th century, when human flight was still considered an impossibility, Germany’s Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin vied with the Wright Brothers to build the world’s first successful flying machine. As the Wrights labored to invent the airplane, Zeppelin fathered the remarkable airship, sparking a bitter rivalry between the two types of aircraft and their innovators that would last for decades, in the quest to control one of humanity’s most inspiring achievements. And it was the airship—not the airplane—that led the way.
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Actually, a One-Sided Story
- By JP on 08-03-20
By: Alexander Rose
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The Big Picture
- On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself
- By: Sean Carroll
- Narrated by: Sean Carroll
- Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on the Higgs boson and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void?
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ABSOLUTE MUST READ!
- By serine on 05-12-16
By: Sean Carroll
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Into the Storm
- Two Ships, a Deadly Hurricane, and an Epic Battle for Survival
- By: Tristram Korten
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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In late September 2015, Hurricane Joaquin swept past the Bahamas and swallowed a pair of cargo vessels in its destructive path: El Faro, a 790-foot American behemoth with a crew of 33, and the Minouche, a 230-foot freighter with a dozen sailors aboard. From the parallel stories of these ships and their final journeys, Tristram Korten weaves a remarkable tale of two veteran sea captains from very different worlds, the harrowing ordeals of their desperate crews, and the Coast Guard’s extraordinary battle against a storm that defied prediction.
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Just average
- By Rickmeister on 03-13-20
By: Tristram Korten
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Conquistadores
- A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest
- By: Fernando Cervantes
- Narrated by: Luis Soto
- Length: 15 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the few short decades that followed Christopher Columbus' first landing in the Caribbean in 1492, Spain conquered the two most powerful civilizations of the Americas: the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru. Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, and the other explorers and soldiers who took part in these expeditions dedicated their lives to seeking political and religious glory, helping to build an empire unlike any the world had ever seen. But centuries later, these conquistadors have become the stuff of nightmares.
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A fresh mature perspective on the Spanish conquest
- By Chencheno111 on 03-19-22
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How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch
- In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe, from the Origins of Atoms to the Big Bang
- By: Harry Cliff
- Narrated by: Harry Cliff
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Harry Cliff - a University of Cambridge particle physicist and researcher on the Large Hadron Collider - sets out in pursuit of answers. He ventures to the largest underground research facility in the world, deep beneath Italy's Gran Sasso mountains, where scientists gaze into the heart of the Sun using the most elusive of particles, the ghostly neutrino. He visits CERN in Switzerland to explore the "Antimatter Factory," where the stuff of science fiction is manufactured daily (and we're close to knowing whether it falls up).
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Excellent
- By Adrian on 01-06-23
By: Harry Cliff
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The Manuscripts Club
- The People Behind a Thousand Years of Medieval Manuscripts
- By: Christopher de Hamel
- Narrated by: John Lee, Christopher de Hamel
- Length: 17 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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The illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are among the greatest works of European art and literature. We are dazzled by them and recognize their crucial role in the transmission of knowledge. However, we generally think much less about the countless men and women who made, collected and preserved them through the centuries, and to whom they owe their existence. This entrancing book describes some of the extraordinary people who have spent their lives among illuminated manuscripts over the last thousand years.
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Manuscripts Through the Centuries
- By Tbaley on 12-02-23
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Klan War
- Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction
- By: Fergus M. Bordewich
- Narrated by: Landon Woodson
- Length: 16 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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The Ku Klux Klan, which celebrated historian Fergus Bordewich defines as “the first organized terrorist movement in American history,” rose from the ashes of the Civil War. At its peak in the early 1870s, the Klan boasted many tens of thousands of members, no small number of them landowners, lawmen, doctors, journalists, and churchmen, as well as future governors and congressmen. And their mission was to obliterate the muscular democratic power of newly emancipated Black Americans and their white allies, often by the most horrifying means imaginable.
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a great but depressing book
- By D. Littman on 12-12-23
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Our Tribal Future
- How to Channel Our Foundational Human Instincts into a Force for Good
- By: David R. Samson
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Tribalism is one of the most complex and ancient evolutionary forces; it gave us the capacity for cooperation and competition, and allowed us to navigate increasingly complex social landscapes. It is so powerful that it can predict our behavior even better than race, class, gender, or religion. But in our vast modern world, has this blessing become a curse? Our Tribal Future explores a central paradox of our species: how altruism, community, kindness, and genocide are all driven by the same core adaptation.
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Best Game Plan Yet for Unfucking the World
- By Rob R. on 07-26-23
By: David R. Samson
Flawed but entertaining and thought provoking
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Outstanding, dense and engaging!
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Leaves you hungry for more insight.
Good history but...
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Average Niall
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I had the privilege of meeting Prof. Ferguson once in Cambridge and observing his thoughtful and incisive thinking.
Niall F. develops brilliant insights into patterns of history
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The narration by Elliot Hill however is terrible. He is British, as of course is Ferguson, but perhaps feels that for his audience "Moscow" to rhyme with "cow" is less jarring, though I would prefer that people pronounce things in a way that is consistent with their accent. If that were the only one, I would not pile on, as it is both minor and a matter of preference. But his repeated pronunciation errors - in any accent in English - were so annoying that when I could remember them, I noted down these, which were either wrong, or spoken as if in Italian:
Robert Burns' poetry
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Keiretsu
Modena
Westphalia / Westphalian
Copenhagen
Canton
Buccleuch
Kirkcaldy
(Mario) Puzo
Consigliere
Apulia
Omerta
Youths
Che Guevara
Hegemony
What was worse was that every time a word our phrase came up that was consequential, I think in his view, you could hear the metaphorical quotation marks being put around it with a little pause beforehand: cod solemnity, somewhat reminiscent of local news readers switching gear to talk about a fatal accident - every time. Taken with the mispronunciations it was only the fact that the material was interesting that got me through this. If you are on the fence, honestly I would say it is worth reading, but unless you are very patient skip the audio version and pick it up on Kindle or on paper.
Not always clear structure, *terrible* narration
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like with many books, this one said the most in the 1/3 of the book. nevertheless, for those who like history, it's worth to listen. it would have been great if there were some bullet points at the end of each chapter, otherwise it's hard to extract the key thoughts of what he tries to illustrate with the examples.
an interesting, but slowly developing storyline
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What did you love best about The Square and the Tower?
There is a clear line that is drawn through modern history that illuminates the processes that brought us to where we are today. Great Book. Better than his work on the history of money.What other book might you compare The Square and the Tower to and why?
The history of moneyWhat three words best describe Elliot Hill’s performance?
good but not great.Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I was surprised at what i did not knowYou did not understand modern history before this
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The book's scattered approach is particularly challenging in audio format, where the constant shifts between examples and time periods become disorienting. While Ferguson's credentials are impressive and some insights are valuable, the work would have benefited from a more focused and methodical analysis.
A decent introduction to the concept of historical networks, but lacks the depth and coherence one might expect from a historian of Ferguson's caliber.
Ambitious idea that fell short in execution
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The historical context, the reading
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