Niall Ferguson

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Niall Ferguson (b. April 18, 1964 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a well-known and widely published British historian of modern imperialism. He is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University, a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University, and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is a specialist in financial and economic history.

Ferguson has earned a reputation as a revisionist who challenges many of the long-standing orthodoxies in history. Ferguson's wide profile in journalism and his revisionist reputation has led him to be compared to A. J. P. Taylor, though the comparison is not entirely apt: there is a very wide gulf between both the beliefs and methods of Ferguson and Taylor.

Peter Wilby described him as "almost the only right-wing columnist now worth reading".

In his 2001 book The Cash Nexus , Ferguson argued that the popular saying, "money makes the world go 'round," is wrong; instead he presented a case for human actions in history motivated by far more than just economic concerns. In the same book, Ferguson made a case against those historians such as Paul Kennedy, who argued that the United States was a politically and economically over-stretched power on the verge of collapse. If anything, Ferguson argued that United States was not sufficiently involved in the affairs of the world. In his books Colossus and Empire, Ferguson presented the British Empire as an essentially benevolent institution and expressed regret that the modern U.S could not be like the 19th century British Empire.

He is best known for his 1998 revisionist book The Pity of War, which is an analytic account of what Ferguson considered to be the ten great myths of the Great War. The book generated much controversy, particularly Ferguson's suggestion that it would have been for the best for everyone if Britain had stayed out of the First World War in 1914 and allowed Germany to win the war. Furthermore, Ferguson expressed disagreement with the Sonderweg interpretation of German history championed by such German historians such as Fritz Fischer, Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Hans Mommsen and Wolfgang Mommsen who argued that the German Empire deliberately started an aggressive war in 1914 and that the Second Reich was little more than a dress rehearsal for the Third Reich.

On the contrary, Ferguson maintained that Germany waged a preventive war in 1914, a war largely forced on the Germans by reckless and irresponsible British diplomacy. Moreover, Ferguson denied that the origins of National Socialism can be traced back to Imperial Germany; instead Ferguson asserted the origins of Nazism can only be traced back to the First World War and its aftermath. Another controversial aspect of the Pity of War was Ferguson's use of counter-factual history. Ferguson presented a counter-factual version of Europe under Imperial German domination that was peaceful, prosperous, democratic and without ideologies like Communism and fascism.

Ferguson is the leading academic champion of virtual history. Ferguson likes to imagine alternative outcomes to history as a way of stressing the contingent aspects of history. For Ferguson, great forces don't make history; individuals do and nothing is pre-determined. Thus, for Ferguson there are no paths in history which will determine how things will work out. The world is neither progressing nor regressing; only the actions of individuals will determine whatever we live in a better or worse world.

Another area of interest for Ferguson is Jewish history, especially the Rothschild family. Ferguson credits the Rothschilds with helping to develop a stable international banking system in the 19th century.

As a commentator on current events, Ferguson supported the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, though he has criticized many of its subsequent implementation and organizational problems. Ferguson has often disparaged the European Union as a disaster waiting to happen and President Vladimir Putin of Russia for authoritarianism. In Ferguson's view, Putin's policies stand to lead Russia to a catastrophes equivalent to those that befell Germany during the Nazi era. Ferguson has generally supported the policies of George W. Bush, especially his foreign policy, but sees the economic and financial policies of the Bush administration as potentially putting the economic health of the United States at serious risk, and he opposed Bush's reelection in 2004 ([1]). Ferguson believes that if the United States does not sharply cut social spending in the next decade or so, then the drain on the Treasury by retiring Baby-boomers stands to create a serious financial crisis. In Ferguson's view, Bush has not done enough to cut what Ferguson calls "entitlements" in the area of social spending.

In its August 15, 2005 edition, The New Republic published "The New New Deal", an essay by Ferguson and Laurence J. Kotlikoff, chairman of the economics department at Boston University. The two scholars advocated the following changes to the American government's economic and fiscal policies:

• Replacing the personal income tax, corporate income tax, payroll tax, estate tax and gift tax with a 33% Federal Retail Sales Tax (FRST), plus a monthly rebate, paid to all households, equal to the amount of FRST paid by households with similar demographics living at the poverty line
• Replacing the retirement benefits portion of Social Security with a Personal Security System (PSS), consisting of private retirement accounts for all citizens plus extra benefits to those who could not afford to save enough for a decent retirement
• Replacing Medicare and Medicaid with a Medical Security System (MSS) that would provide health insurance vouchers to all citizens, the value of which would be determined by one's health
• Cutting federal discretionary spending by 20%

Academic Career

Previous academic positions Ferguson has held are:

1989-1990 Research Fellow, Christ’s College, University of Cambridge

1990-1992 Official Fellow and Lecturer, Peterhouse, University of Cambridge

1992-2000 Fellow and Tutor in Modern History, Jesus College, University of Oxford

2000-2002 Professor of Political and Financial History, University of Oxford

2002-2004 Herzog Professor in Financial History at Stern School of Business, New York University

2004-present Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University

Bibliography

• War of the World: History's Age of Hatred, 1914-1989.
• 1914: Why the World Went to War, Penguin, 2005. ISBN 0141022205
• Colossus: the Rise and Fall of the American Empire, Allen Lane, 2004. ISBN 0713997702
• Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World, Allen Lane, 2003. ISBN 0713996153
• The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000, London: Allen Lane/Penguin Press, 2001. ISBN 0713994657
• Virtual History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals, Basic Books, 1999. ISBN 0465023223
• The Pity of War: Explaining World War I, London: Allen Lane/Penguin Press, 1998. ISBN 0140275231. Basic Books, 1999, ISBN 046505711X
• The House of Rothschild: The World's Banker, 1849-1999, Viking Books, 1999. ISBN 0670887943
• The World's Banker: The History of the House of Rothschild, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998, ISBN 0297815393
• The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets 1798-1848, Viking Books, 1998. ISBN 0670857688
• Paper and Iron : Hamburg Business and German Politics in the Era of Inflation, 1897-1927, Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 0521470161

External links

• niallferguson.org - The official home page of Niall Ferguson
• Harvard University Page for Professor Ferguson Harvard University
• Hoover Institution - Niall Ferguson, Senior Fellow
• Niall Ferguson Virtual History The Pity of War.
• Britain First cover story in The Spectator September 25, 2004 (registration required)
• The End of Europe? comparing the empires of Europe and America, AEI Bradley Lecture, March 1, 2004