Introduction, Rassela's Question Summary and Analysis

Author Niall Ferguson opens his book by noting that Kenneth Clark, the creator of a television series on human civilization that inspired Ferguson as a child, helped to define the idea of civilization for a generation. Civilization was correlated with high visual culture, that is great art and architecture. In the book, Ferguson takes a broader, more comparative view of civilization, including information about both sewage pipes and flying buttresses. A civilization is measured by the range of its achievements, especially its ability to produce a high duration and quality of life for its citizens. Civilizations are also the largest unit of coherent human social organization, broader than empires and nations.

What was the most advanced civilization in the 15th century, for instance? Had one traveled the world, she would be most impressed by the Oriental civilizations...