Niall Ferguson is the preeminent historian of the ideas that define our time. He has challenged how we think about money, power, civilisation and empires. Now he wants to reimagine history itself. Networks, he explains, are the key to history. The greatest innovators have been ‘superhubs’ of connections. The most powerful states, empires and companies have been those with the most densely networked structures. And the most transformative ideas – from the printing presses that launched the Reformation to the Freemasonry that inspired the American Revolution – have gone viral precisely because of the networks within which they spread. Our host for this conversation is historian, author and broadcaster, Rana Mitter. The audio of this live Intelligence Squared event was recorded in London in 2017.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Being Human in an AI World, with Susie Alegre
How the Legacy of the British Empire Still Shapes Our World, with Sathnam Sanghera
Archive: Doughnut Economics, with Kate Raworth
The Circle of Life, with Joe Roman
The World in 2024 with Niall Ferguson: Crisis, Conflict and Consequences, Part Two
The World in 2024 with Niall Ferguson: Crisis, Conflict and Consequences, Part One
George the Poet on Combatting the War on Blackness
Searching for Another England, with Caroline Lucas and Grace Blakeley, Part Two
Searching for Another England, with Caroline Lucas and Grace Blakeley, Part One
Arash Azizi on Iran's Turbulent Past and its Uncertain Future
Getting Weird with Physics, with Harry Cliff
Istanbul: Crossroads of the World, with Alexander Christie-Miller
Keir Starmer, Will Hutton, Alastair Campbell and Sonia Sodha on How to Remake Britain, Part Two
Keir Starmer, Will Hutton, Alastair Campbell and Sonia Sodha on How to Remake Britain, Part One
The Great London Novel, with Andrew O'Hagan
The F Word: Re-evaluating Society's Approach to Body Image, with Kate Manne
Unlocking the Power of Memory, with Charan Ranganath
Going Nuclear: Could a Catastrophic Conflict Take Place? with Annie Jacobsen
Finding the Story within Ordinary Human Failings, with Megan Nolan
Why We Need to Slow Down to Save the Planet, with Kohei Saito
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Modern West