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The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: great train crash, racial defilement, killing space, Soviet Union, United States, First World War (more...)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Why, if life was improving so rapidly for so many people at the dawn of the 20th century, were the next hundred years full of brutal conflict? Ferguson (Colossus) has a relatively simple answer: ethnic unrest is prone to break out during periods of economic volatility—booms as well as busts. When they take place in or near areas of imperial decline or transition, the unrest is more likely to escalate into full-scale conflict. This compelling theory is applicable to the Armenian genocide in Turkey, the slaughter of the Tutsis in Rwanda or the "ethnic cleansing" perpetrated against Bosnians, but the overwhelming majority of Ferguson's analysis is devoted to the two world wars and the fate of the Jews in Germany and eastern Europe. His richly informed analysis overturns many basic assumptions. For example, he argues that England's appeasement of Hitler in 1938 didn't lead to WWII, but was a misinformed response to a war that had started as early as 1935. But with Ferguson's claims about "the descent of the West" and the smaller wars in the latter half of the century tucked away into a comparatively brief epilogue, his thoughtful study falls short of its epic promise. (Sept. 25)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker

Ferguson's eight-hundred-page reevaluation of the Second World War presents itself as a grand theory about ethnic conflict, the end of empire, and the postwar triumph of the East. The exact contours of the theory, however, remain unclear. Ferguson argues that the central story of the twentieth century is "the descent of the West," but he never really clarifies what "the West" means - Russia sometimes qualifies, sometimes not, depending upon what point Ferguson is trying to make. Ferguson is a skilled storyteller, and he offers many striking reflections on the bloodiest years of the past century, including a compelling analysis of appeasement. Unfortunately, the book as a whole is marred by sweeping judgments and jarring contradictions. A number of odd moves - such as the grouping of Hoovervilles with Soviet labor and German concentration camps - point up another conspicuous shortcoming: Ferguson's failure to make sense of America's power.
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Product Details

Hardcover: 880 pages
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The; First Edition. 1 in number line edition (September 21, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1594201005
ISBN-13: 978-1594201004
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 2.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds

Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (61 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #113,305 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
great train crash, racial defilement, killing space

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Soviet Union, United States, First World War, Red Army, Third Reich, British Empire, Second World War, Western Front, Eastern Europe, Prime Minister, The Times, Eastern Front, Western Europe, Pearl Harbor, Far East, Great Britain, League of Nations, Chiang Kai-shek, Bomber Command, Duff Cooper, Queen Victoria, United Kingdom, Operation Barbarossa, West European, Chiefs of Staff

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	8% buy Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire 4.5 out of 5 stars (20) $11.56
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Customer Reviews

61 Reviews

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164 of 188 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Are we at the edge of the end of Western domination of the world?, October 3, 2006

By	Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Niall Ferguson is a remarkably inventive and productive historian, who in the last decade has produced a number of major works including a largely favorable analysis of the British Empire, and one of the reluctant empire of the twentieth century, the American Colossus. Now in his latest book, an expanded version of a British Channel Four Television series, he surveys the history of the twentieth century, which he claims to be the bloodiest century in modern history. This century had `the greatest man- made catastrophe of all time' the Second World War. His thesis is that one major reason for the disasters of the century is the decline of the great multinational Empires which existed before the First World War- and the conflict brought about through `the emergence of new empire- states in Turkey, Russia, Japan and Germany.'

In explaining the violence of this most violent of centuries he also invokes two other major factors. The first is the ethnic conflict in which advanced processes of assimilation (as with the Jews in Germany) broke down. The second is the `economic volatility, the frequency and amplitude of changes in the rate of economic growth, prices, interest rates and employment" which bring with them intense social stresses and strain.

These theoretical elements outlined clearly in the first chapter of the book serve as basis for his panoramic survey of the century's great disasters. But as his masterly narrative of international diplomacy and military history unfolds the theoretical elements somehow fade before the careful massing of evidence, the detailed analysis of what happened in Central and Eastern Europe, in China, Manchuria, Korea and Japan, in the vast stretches of the Russian Empire, in Cambodia and East Asia, in conflicts where incredible cruelties are done again and again by empires in demise suffering from ethnic conflict and radical economic change. .

The evidence for the Jewish reader is especially agonizing when it comes to his chronicling events of the Shoah, and too of some of the particularly horrific crimes committed against the Jews which occurred before and after it. These were perpetrated by a variety of Central and Eastern European people, Ukranians, Lithuanians, Croatians, Rumanians, Poles, Hungarians.

A vast human gallery are also victims of most horrible cruelties .Whether it is the slaughter of the Armenians by the Turks, or the Japanese wholesale rape of Chinese women,(The Rape of Nanking) , the slaughter of Tutsi by Hutus in Rwanda Ferguson provides a despairing picture of human cruelty and suffering..

In analyzing the perpetrators of the Holocaust he is especially instructive when examines not simply the ordinary `willing executioners' but the intellectual elite of the society then considered the most cultured in the world. Ferguson examines the Nazi appeal to `those with university degrees so vital to the smooth running of a modern state and civil society', and shows how Nazism provided a kind of political religion which came to replace declining traditional faiths. The new faith inspired by the magnetism of the Fuhrer captivated German intellectuals and deprived them of all sense of human decency.

Another theme of Ferguson is his belief that the wars of the twentieth century resulted in a shift in the world balance- of- power towards the East. As he understands it from 1500 to 1900 the West reigned supreme, but new centers of power have emerged which deprive it of its exclusivity.

Ferguson in some of his most recent journalism has addressed the question of which area of the world most likely to set off a new conflagration. He writes of the great Shiite and Sunnite divide. But alarmingly he also makes a parallel between the rise of a charismatic dictator in the thirties, and the rise of the Iranian Ahmadinejad today. He speculates about the rise of a nuclear Iran the West has tried to appease, and speculates about it compelling a nuclear exchange with Israel which brings about the twilight of the West...

Clearly Ferguson would like Western leaders to take responsibility now and by responsible action avert the new Disasters which may already be at our gate.

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86 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An ambitious work comes up a bit short, October 14, 2006

By	Steven A. Peterson (Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL)) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

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Niall Ferguson's The War of the World has received a fair amount of "buzz." And, indeed, as one reads it, the scholarship, the knowledge of historical nuances, and the command of the sweep of the 20th century are all readily apparent. However, in the end, the book is somewhat unsatisfying.

The book begins with an interesting notion, namely that life was rapidly improving as the twentieth century began. However, the puzzle addressed by Ferguson follows from that: why did the rest of the century become so bloody? The First and Second World Wars were ghastly events in terms of the butchery of human life. And, looking at the subtitle to the book, one result was "the descent of the West."

What factors shaped the currents of this time period? He suggests three major factors: ethnic conflict, economic turbulence, and the decline of empires. The first two are easily understood. However, he also notes the disintegration/decline of the old empires, such as the British Empire.

What next? He suggests that the West is slowly being challenged by rising powers such as China. He also notes that the West, because of slow population growth, is coming increasingly to depend upon foreign labor, including those from the world of Islam (the Near East, as he terms it). Thus, his sense is that the West is facing challenges as we have entered the 21st century.

Obviously, this is an ambitious volume. It is worth reading to get a global, overarching perspective on the 20th century. However, in the end, it is not fully satisfying. The thesis is never crisply stated, the book tends to meander, and the final chapter does not really pull things together as well as it could. In short, the whole is somewhat less than the sum of its parts.

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46 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Century of Unprecedented Bloodshed, October 19, 2006

By	Izaak VanGaalen (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

In both relative and absolute terms, the bodycount of the last century was the highest in recorded history. There were 16 conflicts that left more than a million dead, another 6 that claimed from a half million to a million lives, and 14 more that claimed from a quarter to a half million lives; all told, about 167 to 188 million people lost their lives as a result of armed conflict. Harvard historian Niall Fergusson has written a monumental tour-de-force attempting to answer the question: why?

Being Niall Ferguson, author of "Empire" and "Colossus," the reasons are not the conventional ones. Large-scale killing has taken place in previous centuries, and the 20th century, blessed with material progress, should have been a peaceful one, yet the bloodshed was unprecedented.

Ferguson disagrees with the traditional explanation that the scale of killing was a result of more sophisticated military hardware. The killing fields of Rwanda and Cambodia showed that large-scale massacres could be carried out by primitive weapons.

Stalinism, Fascism, and Anti-Semitism have been cited as the sources of the centuries largests mass murders. Ferguson argues that although the nation-states that formed after the disintegration of empires embraced extreme ideologies, these nation-states were not inherently evil; in fact they carried out many positive and peaceful goals.

Ferguson, instead, identifies three elements - the three E's - that were responsible for much of the 20th century's armed conflicts: "ethnic disintegration, economic volitility, and empires in decline." One of the primary examples he uses to illustrate his thesis is the case of Central and Eastern Europe. Prior to World War I, four empires were on the brink of dissolution - the Hohenzollerns of Prussia, the Hapsburgs of Austro-Hungary, the Romanovs of Russia, and the Ottomans in Turkey. The co-existence of these multi-ethnic populations was always tenuous at best, the transformation from empire to nation-state was anything but smooth. The nation-states that emerged after the war - Turkey, Germany, and Russia had their own agendas to cope with the worldwide economic depression that followed the war. The other countries that were located in between from the Baltic to the Balkans experienced some of the bloodiest ethnic cleanings in history. And this was only a foreboding of what was to come.

What makes this "fatal formula" so pertinent today is that all of these elements exist in the Middle East today. According the Ferguson, as he elegantly argued in "Colossus," America is an empire, a liberal empire, but it is also an empire in denial. With economic instablity, which already existed before the invasion of Iraq; ethnic strife between Sunni and Shia; and America's wavering support for the young nation: everything seems to be heading toward full-scale civil war. Making matters worse, the conflict will inevitably spill over into Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, all of whom have ethnic and religious interests in the outcome.

Ferguson's analysis seems to be convincing. The brutality that we are witnessing today in Iraq where Sunni and Shia treat each other as "inferior or malignant species" is remarkably reminiscent of some of the 20th century's worst nightmares. We can only hope that the bloodletting can be stopped and that a political solution can be found. Unfortunately, the ranks of the optimists are dwindling.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but unfinished.
The best thing about this book is its extremely varied 600+ page synthesis of (mostly) the early 20th century which includes such things as detailed analyses of the context and... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Roger McEvilly (the guilty bys...

1.0 out of 5 stars no alternatives offered-just self-promoting judgment
The author's attitude on the brutality of the allies ignores the necessity of such tactics in order to win WW2. He offers no alternative to engaging the axis powers. Read more

Published 4 months ago by ultraman1965

3.0 out of 5 stars Promises much, doesn't fully deliver
Ferguson's books get bigger and more ambitious the more his reputation grows. This mammoth 800 pager asks how H.G. Read more

Published 4 months ago by Sirin

4.0 out of 5 stars A bit disjointed, but an interesting premise, anyway
I've never read anything else by Niall Ferguson. Some years ago, he produced the book "The Pity of War", which (so I heard) had as its premise the idea that World War I, or at... Read more

Published 5 months ago by David W. Nicholas

5.0 out of 5 stars Total Commitment
The French defeat in WW II was caused by poor leadership. Troops and war materiel were abundant. The British were lucky at Dunkirk. Britain had a maritime advantage. Read more

Published 11 months ago by Mary E. Sibley

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding New View of History That Has Meaning For The Present
Niall Ferguson has given us a new way of looking at International conflict, not only in the 20th Century, but as we embark in the 21st Century. Read more

Published 13 months ago by Shelia B. Cassidy

4.0 out of 5 stars The descent of Western democracies into world-wide conflicts
Ferguson uses H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" as a pattern for the 20th Century "War of the World"--the period of world-wide violence that spanned approximately the first 50... Read more

Published 14 months ago by Todd Stockslager

1.0 out of 5 stars Bait and switch

From Chapter One: "The hundred years after 1900 were without question the bloodiest century in human history, far more violent in relative as well as absolute terms than any... Read more

Published 15 months ago by Declan Trott

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining read, that loses momentum towards the end.
Overall, Ferguson's book is an entertaining read. However, he starts by asserting that bloodshed in the 20th century was a result of economic volatility which was the trigger... Read more

Published 16 months ago by Matthew Gerrish

1.0 out of 5 stars Typical liberal view of history
Ferguson should move to an island where he can set up his utopia of fair war since the USA is such a vile place. Read more

Published 17 months ago by brad c.

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