Download The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook AudioBook Free

A great recasting of the turning items in world history, like the one we're living through, as a collision between old electric power hierarchies and new sociable networks Most history is hierarchical: it's about emperors, presidents, leading ministers, and field marshals. It's about claims, armies, and businesses. It's about requests from on high. Even history "from below" is often about trade unions and workers' gatherings. But what if that's due to the fact hierarchical organizations create the archives that historians rely on? What if we are lacking the informal, less well documented social networks that will be the true resources of power and individuals of change? The 21st century has been hailed as the Age of Networks. However, in The Square and the Tower, Niall Ferguson argues that sites will always be with us, from the framework of the mind to the meals chain, from the family tree to freemasonry. Throughout history, hierarchies housed in high towers have stated to rule, but often real electric power has resided in the sites in the town square below. For this is sites that have a tendency to innovate. And it is through sites that cutting edge ideas can contagiously multiply. Because conspiracy theorists prefer to fantasize about such sites doesn't signify they are not real. From cults of early Rome to the dynasties of the Renaissance, from the founding fathers to Facebook, The Square and the Tower explains to the storyline of the climb, fall, and climb of sites, and shows how network theory - concepts such as clustering, levels of separation, weak ties, contagions, and level transitions - can enhance our understanding of both the past and the present. Equally The Ascent of Money put Wall structure Neighborhood into historical point of view, so The Square and the Tower does the same for Silicon Valley. And it provides a bold prediction about which hierarchies will hold up against this latest wave of network disruption - and which is toppled.

Category: History & Theory