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<p>Praise for Why The West Rules-for Now &#8220;Morris&#8217; new book illustrates perfectly why one really scholarly book about the past is worth a hundred fanciful works of futurology. Morris is the world&#8217;s most talented ancient historian, a man as much at home with state-of-the-art archaeology as with the classics as they used to be studied . . . He&#160;has brilliantly pulled off what few modern academics would dare to attempt: a single-volume history of the world that offers a bold and original answer to the question, Why did the societies that make up 'the West' pull ahead of 'the Rest' not once but twice, and most spectacularly in the modern era after around 1500? Wearing his impressive erudition lightly &#8212; indeed, writing with a wit and clarity that will delight the lay reader &#8212; Morris uses his own ingenious index of social development as the basis for his answer. &#8212;Niall Ferguson, Foreign Affairs <br>&#8220;A formidable, richly engrossing effort to det

<p>Praise for Why the West Rules-for Now In an era when cautious academics too often confine themselves to niggling discussions of pipsqueak topics, it is a joy to see a scholar take a bold crack at explaining the vast sweep of human progress. . .Readers of Why the West Rules--For Now are unlikely to see the history of the world in quite the same way ever again. And that can't be said of many books on any topic. Morris has penned a tour de force. --Keith Monroe, The Virginian-Pilot If you read one history book this year, if you read one this decade, this is the one. -- Tim O' Connell, The Florida Times-Union A monumental effort...Morris is an engaging writer with deep insights from archaeology and ancient history that offer us compelling visions about how the past influences the future. --Michael D. Langan, Buffalo News <p> [Morris] has written the first history of the world that really makes use of what modern technology can offer to the interpretation of the historical process. The result is a path-breaking work that lays out what modern history should look like. --Harold James, Financial Times Morris is a lucid thinker and a fine writer. . .possessed of a welcome sense of humor that helps him guide us through this grand game of history as if he were an erudite sportscaster. --Orville Schell, The New York Times Book Review A remarkable book that may come to be as widely read as Paul Kennedy's 1987 work, 'The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers.' Like Mr Kennedy's epic, Mr Morris's 'Why the West Rules--For Now' uses history and an overarching theory to address the anxieties of the present . . . This is an important book--one that challenges, stimulates and entertains. Anyone who does not believe there are lessons to be learned from history should start here. -- The Economist Morris' new book illustrates perfectly why one really scholarly book about the past is worth a hundred fanciful works of futurology. Morris is the world's most talented an

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IAN MORRIS is Willard Professor of Classics and History at Stanford University. He has published ten scholarly books, including, most recently, The Dynamics of Ancient Empires, and has directed excavations in Greece and Italy. He lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains in California.

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