Oral history is a recipe for complete misrepresentation because almost no one tells the truth, even when they intend to.
Niall FergusonThe Japanese Co-Prosperity Zone began as a racist utopia and ended as a cross between an abbatoir, a plantation and a brothel.
Niall FergusonFor 500 years the West patented six killer applications that set it apart. The first to download them was Japan. Over the last century, one Asian country after another has downloaded these killer apps- competition, modern science, the rule of law and private property rights, modern medicine, the consumer society and the work ethic. Those six things are the secret sauce of Western civilization.
Niall FergusonThe rise of the West is, quite simply, the pre-eminent historical phenomenon of the second half of the second millennium after Christ.
Niall Ferguson