Originally published March 15 2011

Professor of History at Harvard Niall Ferguson is out to convince us that Western civilisation is set for a hard time, teetering on the verge of being eclipsed by the emergent economic giants of China, India and Brazil.

Tedious jargon aside, Ferguson devotes an episode to each of the features that he identifies as central to Western supremacy; those of competition, science, democracy, property, consumerism and work ethic. In the pre-amble to the first episode, speaking hoarsely and emphatically as if churning out so much provocative pro-colonialism gives him physical pain, Ferguson confidently expects that looking at these features will “help answer the most important question of our time: are we the generation on whose watch Western ascendancy is going to end?”

In his articles, Ferguson cites a survey taken among first-year history undergraduates at a (supposedly) leading British university. Of those, 34 per cent knew who the English monarch at the time of the Spanish Armada was, 31 per cent knew the location of the Boer War and only 16 per cent knew who commanded the British forces at Waterloo. This underpins his motivation (other than a fat cheque) for writing his book and making his television programme: that people in the West today forget what put them in their comfortable, globe-spanning position at their peril.

Firstly, I really, really, want to know which university this was. Secondly, if this is the state of British education before cuts are made, then I think all hope is lost.

The examination and understanding of what catapults European medieval kingdoms to global superpowers in only a few generations is a fascinating area of study that has absorbed academics from as diverse subject areas as anthropology, to history, to politics. A treatment of this area of study is not going to be satisfactorily answered in six 45-minute episodes. Furthermore, the way in which Ferguson couches a ‘them and us’ argument becomes tiresome. Where does the West end? Where does the East begin? If we accept that China or India doesn’t fit into the Western club, does Japan or Turkey? Both have features that are common to countries that are definitively ‘Western’, yet are still substantially different. It seems as if Ferguson is watching a gigantic game of Risk play out in the confines of his own head, as different coloured blocs manoeuvre and struggle for dominance on a map of the world.

Ferguson is notorious for baiting the intellectual left on colonial issues. A supporter of the Iraq War and defender of the USA’s role as hegemon in the Middle East, he is also known for arguing that colonial settlement of Africa has resulted in a net benefit for African nations today. Ignore the civil wars that flared up as a result of the arbitrarily drawn borders of colonial empires; ignore the cycle of poverty in which most sub-Saharan Africans are trapped as multi-national corporations scrape them clean of minerals to be used in mobile phones and laptops. Concentrate instead on African success stories such as Senegal or Cameroon, where average earnings might be as high as five dollars a day and a flushing toilet is available in every second street!

This triumphalist approach to history is not for me. Nor, crucially, is a standpoint that fails to take into account the real achievements that Western societies have developed and exported all over the world. The “killer apps” would be more appealing if, on the one hand, they didn’t have such a ridiculous name, and if they weren’t thought to be unique to the West. All of them (arguably not Consumerism) can have a positive part to play for societies everywhere. We must recognise this, while also taking account of the problems that have been caused by and continue to stem from Western countries; it is no good emphasising one at the expense of the other.

Take Britain for a simplified example; in our imperial age, we generated unprecedented wealth, made with the products of slavery. We had a stable, democratic government, but one which denied the vote to most men and all women. Great advances were made in almost every scientific discipline, but theories of racial hierarchies and eugenics were serious subjects of debate. This is what we need to remember – not just the successes of history, not just the failings, but the dualism between the two.