The Square and the Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power

A panel discussion of Niall Ferguson's bestselling book The Square and the Tower: Networks, Hierarchies and the Struggle for Global Power.

The renowned historian Niall Ferguson asks: What if everything we thought we knew about history was wrong? What if our conception of history as hierarchical - that of popes, presidents, and prime ministers - is simply because they create the historical archives? 

The twenty-first century has been hailed as the Networked Age. But in The Square and the Tower Niall Ferguson argues that social networks are nothing new. From the printers and preachers who made the Reformation to the freemasons who led the American Revolution, it was the networkers who disrupted the old order of popes and kings.

Far from being novel, our era is the Second Networked Age, with the computer in the role of the printing press. Once we understand this, both the past, and the future, start to look very different indeed.

Participants

Denis Galligan, Emeritus Professor of Socio-Legal Studies and Director of Programmes, Foundation for Law, Justice and Society, Oxford

Professor Eric Heinze, Professor of Law and Humanities, Queen Mary University London

Dr Christopher Decker, Economist and Research Fellow, Faculty of Law, Oxford

Praise for The Square and the Tower

Evening Standard, Books of the Year

The New York Times

Wall Street Journal