"Based on financial-historian and professor Niall Ferguson's book Civilization: The West and the Rest (2011) and hosted by Ferguson, this extraordinarily refreshing and thoroughly enlightening six-part BBC series examines 'how Western civilization became the dominant civilization' and ponders 'whether the West is about to be overtaken.' Ferguson introduces six "killer apps" that contributed to the rise of Western civilization: competition, science, democracy, modern medicine, consumer society, and work
ethic. In the sampled first title, Competition, he concentrates on the first app, showing how the fall of the Ming dynasty and the emergence of the spice trade in the fifteenth century contributed to European expansion and dominance. Ferguson then posits, "Can the West sustain this power, or is a new shift already underway?" Beautiful footage from around the world, lively dramatizations, and lovely stills (art prints, photographs, and more) combine with superb background music. An engaging on-camera host,
Ferguson presents rich historical details in a manner that never gets in the way of telling a good story. Remaining programs Science, Property, Medicine, Consumerism, and Work tackle each killer app in more detail. This lavishly produced history of Western civilization makes an excellent companion to the book and is suggested to supplement history collections."

"In his new TV-series-accompanying book, 'Civilization: The West and the Rest'... the Harvard historian Niall Ferguson is always dashing and often quite brilliant. Ferguson is determined to revive Max Weber's old idea that a "Protestant ethic" was behind the great Western leap forward, and links the decline of the West to the decline of Protestant faith. His recurrent thesis is that everything was going splendidly with the West until about five years ago, when bad financial policies and lax immigration rules brought unwelcome debt and dubious Muslims into the heart of Europe."

"Niall Ferguson also knits the small in with the big, the personal with the momentous, in his Civilization: is the West History? (Channel 4, Sunday). Through the stories of poor English settlers in North America, and conquistadors and then liberators in South America, he explains how it came about that the United States is now the dominant force in western civilization. And it all comes down to what he describes as his "killer app" number three: property.

In the South, after the land was snatched from the indigenous people, it was owned by the king back in Spain, then by a few greedy noblemen such as this Jeronimo de Aliaga dude. Even liberation from Europe didn't lead to democracy, and land is still the big issue in much of Latin America today. In North America, settlers such as Abraham Smith and Millicent Howard worked to earn the right to both land and suffrage, freedom through property. And that's how the American Dream started, though it's not a untarnished one because freedom was possible only if you were white.

Ferguson's is a no-nonsense approach: here's how it is, you better believe it. It's not especially charming, but it certainly isn't boring - it's a rollicking roller-coaster ride through time, so much fun it doesn't even feel like school."

"very good series.... Interesting and informative. Well researched and delivered"

"provocative and lavishly illustrated with dramatic re-creations, artwork, and location footage, backed by Ferguson's engaging narration...Highly recommended. Aud:H,C,P."