The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook

Throughout history, hierarchies housed in high towers have claimed to rule, but often real power has resided in the networks in the town square below. And it offers a bold prediction about which hierarchies will withstand this latest wave of network disruption--and which will be toppled.. And it is through networks that revolutionary ideas can contagiously spread. A brilliant recasting of the turning points in world history, including the one we're living through, as a collision between old power hierarchies and new social networksMost history is hierarchical: it's about emperors, presidents, prime ministers and field marshals. Just because conspiracy theorists like to fantasize about such networks doesn't mean they are not real. From the cults of ancient Rome to the dynasties of the Renaissance, from the founding fathers to Facebook, The Square and the Tower tells the story of the rise, fall and rise of networks, and shows how network theory--concepts such as clustering, degrees of separation, weak ties, contagions and phase transitions--can transform our understanding of both the past and the present.Just as The Ascent of Money put Wall Street into historical perspe

He is Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. His many awards include the Benjamin Franklin Prize for Public Service (2010), the Hayek Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2012) and the Ludwig Erhard Prize for Economic Journalism (2013). He is the author

. His many awards include the Benjamin Franklin Prize for Public Service (2010), the Hayek Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2012) and the Ludwig Erhard Prize for Economic Journalism (2013). He is the author of Paper and Iron, The House of Rothschild, The Pity of War, The Cash Nexus, Empire, Colossus, The War of the World, The Ascent of Money, High Financier, Civilization, The Great Degeneration, and Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist. He is Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. About the Author Niall Ferguson is one of the world's most renowned historians