Title: Why The West Rules -- For NowAuthor: Ian Morris
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Pages: 768
ISBN: 978-0374290023
ISBN: 978-0374290023
Was the rise of the West inevitable or is a historical accident? This has been a question ever since industrialization enabled Western Europe and its American offshoot to dominate the globe on an unprecedented scale and level. Many attempts have been made to answer this question and many more will be made in the future.
Ian Morris' book addresses this question from a different angle. Instead of seeking proximate causes, Mr. Morris takes a sweeping look at history. Nor does he confine his vision to one area of the globe. In order to properly understand the rise of the West and place it in its proper historical perspective, we need to examine other major cultural areas as well and examine what developments were taking place at the same time over there. Apart from politics, other factors like culture, economy and geography also play a role their part and their role needs to be examined as well.
However, there is a problem that needs to be addressed. The major cultural areas of the world had many similarities but also major differences. In order to understand the current dominance of the West, we need to be able to properly compare them. To do that, we need some common bases. This is where Mr. Morris makes his most valuable contribution to the debate. He proposes using an index to compare development between major cultural areas. Admittedly any index proposed is not going to be perfect. But it can always be improved on. And an index no matter what its flaws at least allows for a like to like comparison between very different areas.
So was the rise of the West inevitable? Not really according to the author. Geography gave the West early advantages but many other factors also came into play. Also the East was not necessarily a laggard. As Mr. Morris' index shows, the East and the West developed at roughly the same pace and in approximately the same time frames. Industrialization gave the West an abrupt and massive boost but then the East started to catch up with it. As he points out, in large masses and over long time frames, people in different parts of the world tend to develop at approximately the same rates.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with Mr. Morris' detailed analysis, his attempt to construct a development index does help to push the debate forward. Regardless of how one views the merits of the book, this I believe is an important step forward in this debate.
