Niall Ferguson

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Niall Ferguson at the St. Gallen Symposium 2010

Niall Ferguson (born April 18, 1964 in Glasgow ) is a British historian . He is a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution . Prior to that, he held the Laurence A. Tisch Professorship for History at Harvard University, named after Laurence Tisch , and the William Ziegler Professorship for Economics at Harvard Business School . He taught among others at Jesus College of Oxford University and at Stanford University . In the academic year 2010/2011 he also taught at the London School of Economics and Political Science as Philippe Roman Professor of International History . He is regarded as a specialist in financial, economic and European history as well as in the family history of the Rothschilds .

Life

Ferguson was born in Glasgow in 1964 to a teacher and a family doctor. After studying history at Oxford University , he was in 1989 after archival work as a "Hanseatic Scholar" in Germany with the work of Business and Politics in the German inflation: Hamburg 1914-1924 Dr. phil. PhD.

This was followed by academic positions at Oxford and at New York University , as a specialist in financial, economic and European history. In 2004 he accepted the position at Harvard. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution and associated with INET , the Institute for New Economic Thinking, co- funded by George Soros .

In 2004, Time Magazine listed him as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Ferguson has often, also pointedly, commented on current topics such as the financial crisis and the refugee crisis since 2015 . He comments and criticizes short-sighted political decisions from his historical and Western perspective and sometimes suggests alternatives. In 2016 he was the speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Before the Brexit vote in June 2016 , he argued against a Brexit . After the vote, he changed his mind.

Private

Ferguson was married to newspaper publisher Sue Douglas from 1994 to 2011 . Since 2011 he has been married to Ayaan Hirsi Ali , a Dutch politician, women's rights activist and critic of Islam from Somalia . He is the father of five children.

Works and contributions to the discussion

Many of Ferguson's theses, who is politically close to the right-wing conservatives, are very controversial.

In 1998 his book The Pity of War was published (2001: The wrong war ); in this he examined the causes of the outbreak of the First World War . He came to the conclusion that it was not Germany, as many German historians (such as Wolfgang J. Mommsen ) assumed, but the British Empire that was primarily responsible for the escalation in the summer of 1914. (See also: War Guilt Issue # Great Britain .) According to Ferguson, British Foreign Secretary Edward Gray increased tensions. If Great Britain had stayed out of the war, the result would have been a German victory after Ferguson, but also a prosperous post-war Europe in which there would have been democratization, i.e. in fact a kind of “European community” under German hegemony , while Great Britain would still have remained an intact empire. According to Ferguson, who uses the methodology of virtual history (Ferguson is one of their main proponents), National Socialism would not have had any breeding ground either, since according to Ferguson it was only a direct consequence of the "Great War". Instead, when Great Britain entered the war, the war escalated - and yet the result today is that Germany is the economic supremacy in Europe. He also denies that there was a German special route . Ferguson advocates in the book, especially in a subchapter “Undefeated in the field?”, The thesis that Germany did not have to lose the war until the very end. It was not the tactical or material superiority of the Allies that ended the war, but a crisis in German combat morale (stab in the back legend), which can only partially be ascribed to the exogenous strength of the Allied infantry and artillery. Rather, as early as September 1918 the German soldiers would not have missed the fact that the chief of the Supreme Army Command, Erich Ludendorff , was pushing for an armistice - according to Ferguson, an “overreaction” of a “tired and sick” Ludendorff to the failure of his offensives. The "nervous breakdown" of their commander-in-chief had in turn led to a collapse in morale.

Niall Ferguson has previously supported the foreign policy of the Republican US President George W. Bush , such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq ; cf. also Ferguson's Colossus. The Rise and Fall of the American Empire (German 2004: The denied empire. Chances and risks of American power ), where Ferguson advocates the need for a global " hegemon ". He also advocated a greater cut in social spending in the United States, as otherwise, in his opinion, serious fiscal problems would arise. After the Bush administration had not implemented this to the extent deemed necessary by Ferguson, he spoke out against Bush's re-election in 2004.

In 2008 he published the book The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World (Eng: "The rise of money: a financial history of the world"); it was produced with him in the same year for British Channel 4 as a six-part television series with subtitles modified to Boom and Bust . Ferguson emphasized, among other things, that the economic growth of Chile actually showed higher growth rates after the intervention of the Chicago Boys . He earned incomprehension from parts of the audience for the fact that in his negative assessment of the welfare state he mentioned Great Britain and Japan, but not the Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Denmark. Since the book and television series were published shortly before the global financial crash of 2008 of the same year, his homage by hedge funds , among other things, offered a particularly easy target for critics. Ferguson received good reviews from, among others, Raghuram Rajan , the former chief economist of the IMF, who certified Ferguson to have pointed out the dangers of credit expansion before the outbreak of the financial crisis.

In his column in the Financial Times , after April 30, 2009, Ferguson engaged in a public feud with Nobel laureate in economics, Paul Krugman . The starting point was a controversy about possible ways out of the US budget crisis. Ferguson, who now lives in the US, has sided with the Republicans and against President Obama on several occasions , while Krugman is seen as left-wing liberal.

Regarding the well-known John Maynard Keynes quote "In the long run we are all dead" Ferguson said at a conference in 2013 that Keynes was not interested in the future because he was homosexual and had no children. He was then much criticized; He was accused of omitting parts of the quotation that explained the context, or that, like many others, he simply did not understand the quotation taken out of context, as the Cambridge economist Simon Taylor wrote.

“... The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is past the ocean is flat again. "

"..." Long Term "is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy a task and too useless a task when all they can do in stormy times is tell us that the ocean will be calm again once the storm is over. "

- John Maynard Keynes

On his website blog, Ferguson later self-critically described his statement as doubly stupid: "Firstly, it is obvious that people who have no children also care for future generations," and secondly, he forgot that Keynes and his wife Lydia were involuntarily childless had stayed because an expected child was stillborn.

The west and the rest of the world

In 2011 Ferguson's highly acclaimed, controversial work Civilization was published. The West and the Rest first in London, and in the same year also in German: The West and the Rest of the World. The story of the competition between cultures. At the beginning he sets out some principles of his understanding of history: For him, the past is not simply closed, but it lives on in the present in the form of traces such as objects and documents. It is not about collecting evidence, but about recognizing and understanding a history of thinking. Historical knowledge suggests past thinking and makes it visible in the context of the present. He sees himself as a gamekeeper who successfully searches for and finds clues. History can help to clarify the present and to better assess today's situation. In this he follows the British historian Robin George Collingwood .

This is followed by explanations of why “the West” has become such a global power since around 1500. Ferguson outlines six decisive factors, which he calls " killer applications ", all of which were necessary for the phenomenal rise and which led to western prosperity and dominance for about 500 years:

  • Competition : was promoted through decentralization, establishment of nation states and capitalism . (The highly developed Chinese Ming dynasty (1368–1644) lost importance due to increasing self-reference. The British, on the other hand, forced the opening of China to their markets in 1842)
  • Science: Studying, understanding and changing the world also ensured a great military advantage. Between 1530 and 1790, 29 groundbreaking discoveries and inventions were made in Europe. In contrast, the Ottoman Sultan Selim I (1470–1520) banned the printing press and thus cut himself off from the scientific revolution and progress, which would later have negative effects.
  • Property Rights: The rule of law protected private property and freedom, led to peace and stability, and produced representative governments. Shortly after the European colonization of North America, 75 to 87 percent of the new residents already owned land. In South America, on the other hand, only a 2 percent elite owned most of the land and its treasures, which did not allow meaningful property rights and the rule of law to flourish.
  • Modern medicine: improved health, doubled life expectancy and increased population growth. Denmark was the first country in the world to double life expectancy in 1770, in Asia this happened from 1890 to 1950 and in Africa from 1920 to 1950. Diseases such as cholera and typhus were almost eradicated by 1914.
  • Consumer society: Durable goods such as clothes played an essential role in the industrial revolution. It began in Great Britain in 1830 and increased economic output and wealth significantly. Innovative and entrepreneurial people like Richard Arkwright , James Watt , Isaac Merritt Singer , Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis drove this cumulative, evolutionary improvement process. The Allies won the Second World War (1939–1945) primarily because of the British secret service, the Soviet mass army and American capital. After that, consumer society spread across the United States and Europe. Régis Debray said: "Rock music, videos, blue jeans, fast food and TV have more power than the Red Army." Asia also experienced a meteoric rise, with South Korea growing the fastest from 1973 to 1990.
  • Work ethic: Protestantism created a moral way of working that led to higher performance, better cohesion and greater savings. In his work, The Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber was one of the first to describe the fact that Protestants know a restless professional work in order to make sure of God's election. The consequence of this was that in 1940 the Protestant countries had an average of 40 percent more income than the Catholic countries. Printing companies began to flourish thanks to Bible printing, and the Protestant population was literate for Bible reading by clergy. Ferguson describes this as Protestant word ethics, which had also fostered mutual trust, loyalty, thrift, honesty, openness and credit networks. The West, with its relativism, consumerism and over-indebtedness, will soon be overtaken by the emerging China, because values ​​such as morality, law and property are valued there.

In the end, Ferguson describes civilizations and cultures as more complex and interacting systems between order and chaos. He compares them to fractal geometry, over-optimized electricity networks and termites . In the event of malfunctions, catastrophes such as financial crises and wars are the result. Examples of a quick end, according to Ferguson, are the following empires:

Ferguson can only partially agree with Samuel P. Huntington and his clash of civilizations because he gives more weight to ethnic conflicts than religious wars. Increasing local conflicts tend to lead to a breakdown of cultures. He describes China as the new climber, which has best understood, adapted and applied western “killer applications” through consumption, imports and foreign investments.

Reception: The West and the rest of the world

Ferguson's work has been widely and controversially discussed. Its language and form were mostly rated and appreciated positively; The content and theses were sometimes sharply criticized, in particular because of perspectives that were too “western” and inadmissible simplifications. But it also received enthusiastic approval.

University policy

Ferguson resigned from his position at Stanford University in 2018 when it became known that, following protests against Charles Murray's performance , he had asked conservative students to research background information about a left-wing student (opposition research) and, in this context, among other things. a. to John Rice-Cameron, son of Susan Rice and chairman of the Republican Student Union at Stanford University, “Now let's turn to the finer game of wearing them down on the student committee. The price of freedom is constant vigilance. "Rice-Cameron replied," We will slowly continue to crush the spirit of resistance on the left because under pressure it will break. "

In March 2019, an interview was published in the NZZ in which Ferguson denounced the alleged “cultural hegemony” of the left at Anglo-American universities and in the media. He criticized the fact that right-wingers were generally seen as potential Nazis, while “socialists and communists, on the other hand, were ... morally impeccable social democrats”, “who just made a few serious mistakes on their way to the happiness of mankind”.

Awards

Publications (selection)

Video

  • The west on the edge. Niall Ferguson is one of the most productive lateral thinkers: As a critic of civilization and a financial historian, the star historian always presents new world designs. Why is he the business elite at the World Economic Forum warned of the demise of the West, he explains Stephan Klapproth in magic moment philosophy . Swiss television , Zurich January 31, 2016

Web links

Commons : Niall Ferguson  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hoover Institution: Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow
  2. ↑ LSE Press Statement
  3. ↑ a b Niall Ferguson: About Niall (self-description in third person)
  4. ↑ Michael Elliott: SCIENTISTS & THINKERS: Niall Ferguson - TIME list of the most influential people in the world, April 26, 2004
  5. ^ Die Zeit , January 21, 2016: Interview .
  6. ↑ welt.de January 24, 2016: Draghi does not have the slightest chance. ECB boss Mario Draghi firmly believes in fulfilling his mission. To do this, he has to get inflation up. He will fail because of that, predicts star historian Niall Ferguson.
  7. ↑ NZZ.ch March 15, 2018: "Brexit should make Great Britain great again, but it makes it a Switzerland "
  8. ↑ www.strongerin.co.uk: Historians back Remain
  9. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/26/niall-ferguson-pankaj-mishra-review
  10. ↑ About Niall
  11. ^ The Pity of War (1999), p. 313
  12. ↑ The Ascent of Money, pp. 218f.
  13. ↑ Tristram Hunt : Hurray for hedge funds , The Observer , November 2, 2008. The Ascent of Money Episode 3: Risky Business , Public Broadcasting Service (USA), July 17, 2009. (there episode no. 3, there is an edited version was broadcast).
  14. ↑ "Rajan:" Fault Lines (...) ", introduction, p. 1 (english edition)
  15. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung of August 26, 2009: Professors' mud battle ( Memento of August 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  16. ↑ Simon Taylor: The true meaning of "In the long run we are all dead". In: Simon Taylor's blog. May 5, 2013, accessed September 5, 2019 .
  17. ↑ stk / Reuters: Gay comment about Keynes: insulting an icon. A tactless saying about someone who has long since died puts Harvard professor Niall Ferguson in distress: the historian had claimed that the economist John Maynard Keynes did not care about the future - because he was gay and had no children. Der Spiegel, Hamburg May 5, 2013
  18. ↑ Martin Motzkau: Regret after Keynes criticism: “A stupid attack on childless and homosexuals.” Niall Ferguson backs down: The British historian had accused the economist John Maynard Keynes of not thinking long-term because he was gay and no children would have. The outrage was great. In the interview he apologizes and talks about his new book. Der Spiegel, Hamburg May 19, 2013
  19. ↑ Niall Ferguson: The West and the Rest of the World. The story of the competition between cultures. Propylaea, Berlin 2011, pages 44 and following
  20. ↑ Review Notes in Pearl Divers
  21. ↑ FAZ.net / Herfried Münkler January 13, 2012: Niall Ferguson: “The West and the Rest of the World” How many apps does this catch-up need? Will China remain politically stable in the long term without the democratic participation of the population? British historian Niall Ferguson leaves the answer open.
  22. ↑ Review: Franziska Augstein , praying, working and shooting , Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich December 19, 2011
  23. ↑ welt.de / Andrea Seibel January 4, 2012: The West has become lazy. Work ethic and competitive pressure, the success factors of the West, are perdu - says the British historian Niall Ferguson and warns of the downfall.
  24. ↑ Mattha Busby: Niall Ferguson quits Stanford free speech role over leaked emails. The Observer / The Guardian , June 2, 2018.
  25. ↑ René Scheu: Niall Ferguson: The Left says inclusion and means attitude . March 20, 2019, ISSN  0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed March 20, 2019]).
  26. ↑ a b translated by Klaus-Dieter Schmidt.
  27. ↑ translated by Michael Bayer and Stephan Gebauer:
  28. ↑ translated by Michael Bayer and Werner Roller.
  29. ↑ http://www.srf.ch/sendung/sternstunde-philosophie/niall-ferguson-der-westen-am-abgrund
personal data
SURNAME Ferguson, Niall
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 18, 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Glasgow , Scotland