New Statesman - <![CDATA[Niall Ferguson]]> http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/niall_ferguson en <![CDATA[The triumph of the east]]> http://www.newstatesman.com/200606260034 http://www.newstatesman.com/200606260034 Mon, 26 Jun 2006 12:00:00 GMT Niall Ferguson It is a commonplace that the past hundred years saw the ascent of the west, even that it was the "American century". This is a mistake. What really happened was the rise of Asia, and the start of a momentous global shift

In the aftermath of the First World War a retired German schoolteacher named Oswald Spengler published the first volume of one of the most influential books of the 20th century: Der Untergang des Abendlandes, known to us as The Decline of the West. These days Spengler is seldom read; his prose is too turgid, his debt to Nietzsche and Wagner too large, his influence on the Nazis too obvious. And [...]

]]> <![CDATA[A Victorian idealist in the White House]]> http://www.newstatesman.com/200302170016 http://www.newstatesman.com/200302170016 Mon, 17 Feb 2003 12:00:00 GMT Niall Ferguson The left opposes the war for the wrong reasons. Bush is not a dumb hick who wants to fight the Iraqis for their oil; he is a clever man motivated by righteousness

"Our calling as a blessed country is to make this world better . . ." Yeah, right. As if. Change the channel.

I suspect that few, if any, readers of the New Statesman will have heard (or read) President Bush's State of the Union speech from beginning to end. But as I listened to it in an icy New York, I was fascinated. I have argued for some time that [...]

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