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metatree 's review for:
Ian Morris’ ‘Why the West Rules - for Now’ is a solid piece of comparative history. In the book, Morris attempts to explain why the western core of civilization (mostly Europe and the Middle East) “rules” and the eastern core (China) does not. His main thesis is that feedbacks and technological accumulation within and between societies changes the meaning of geography, its opportunities and constraints, and drives differences in rates of social developments. He contrasts this relatively complex thesis, with two poles of debate: 1) long-term lock-in theory, which states that initial differences between societies and cultures, due to biology or geography, are insurmountable and “locked in”; and 2) short-term accident theory, which essentially follows the “history is just one damned thing after another” axiom. While Morris knows these are basically straw men, he skillfully uses them to frame the debate.
I found Morris’ arguments and ideas compelling. Particular ideas that resonated were 1) the advantages of backwardness, where societies on the peripheries are often the ones the discover new innovations that drive social development; 2) the paradox of development, where the seeds of collapse are often within the development process itself; and, 3) the changing meaning of geography, where geographical opportunities and constraints change depending on the state of social development. Morris does a good job in illustrating and supporting these arguments with extensive evidence. I think these three ideas (not the only ones presented) are quite useful in understanding history and our modern world.
For evidence, Morris relies heavily on the “social development index” which he uses to compare the western and eastern cores. One could have many objections to this index, and most are brought up by Morris himself in the text, an appendix and on his website. Obviously, a broad measure of this sort will have built-in error - and discussing these details is important - but I think it worked well as backbone for Morris’ arguments.
I also very much enjoyed the survey of history that this book provides. It strengthened my general knowledge of both western and eastern history (especially eastern, because I’m much less familiar with that). I would even recommend the book purely for that reason, regardless of the social development thesis.
There are some weaknesses to the book however. One is it’s reliance on the social development index, which I discussed above. Another more glaring problem is the general lack of consideration of the cultures and societies of the Indian subcontinent. This region had sophisticated societies for the entire time that the book covers and was right in the middle of the two cores that are the main focus of the book. At some level I get that Morris is focused on the extremes but India obviously played some role in this history that was more than just being the origin of Buddhism.
Overall, I thought this was a very good book that stimulated thought and gave me some interesting perspectives on world history and our current place in it. Well worth the read.
I found Morris’ arguments and ideas compelling. Particular ideas that resonated were 1) the advantages of backwardness, where societies on the peripheries are often the ones the discover new innovations that drive social development; 2) the paradox of development, where the seeds of collapse are often within the development process itself; and, 3) the changing meaning of geography, where geographical opportunities and constraints change depending on the state of social development. Morris does a good job in illustrating and supporting these arguments with extensive evidence. I think these three ideas (not the only ones presented) are quite useful in understanding history and our modern world.
For evidence, Morris relies heavily on the “social development index” which he uses to compare the western and eastern cores. One could have many objections to this index, and most are brought up by Morris himself in the text, an appendix and on his website. Obviously, a broad measure of this sort will have built-in error - and discussing these details is important - but I think it worked well as backbone for Morris’ arguments.
I also very much enjoyed the survey of history that this book provides. It strengthened my general knowledge of both western and eastern history (especially eastern, because I’m much less familiar with that). I would even recommend the book purely for that reason, regardless of the social development thesis.
There are some weaknesses to the book however. One is it’s reliance on the social development index, which I discussed above. Another more glaring problem is the general lack of consideration of the cultures and societies of the Indian subcontinent. This region had sophisticated societies for the entire time that the book covers and was right in the middle of the two cores that are the main focus of the book. At some level I get that Morris is focused on the extremes but India obviously played some role in this history that was more than just being the origin of Buddhism.
Overall, I thought this was a very good book that stimulated thought and gave me some interesting perspectives on world history and our current place in it. Well worth the read.