Why the West Rules-for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year: "remarkable . . . Anyone who does not believe there are lessons to be learned from history should start right here" (The Economist).

Around 1750, English entrepreneurs unleashed the energies of steam and coal, and the world was forever changed. The emergence of factories, railroads, and gunboats propelled the West's rise to power in the nineteenth century, and the development of computers and nuclear weapons in the twentieth century secured its glob...