Most history is hierarchical: it's about emperors, presidents, prime ministers and field marshals. It's about states, armies and corporations. It's about orders from on high. Even history "from below" is often about trade unions and workers' parties. But what if that's simply because hierarchical institutions create the archives that historians rely on? What if we are missing the informal, less well documented social networks that are the true sources of power and drivers of change?
The 21st century has been hailed as the Age of Networks. However, in The Square and the Tower, Niall Ferguson argues that networks have always been with us, from the structure of the brain to the food chain, from the family tree to freemasonry. 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. For it is networks that tend to innovate. And it is through networks that revolutionary ideas can contagiously spread. Just because conspiracy theorists like to fantasize about such networks doesn't mean they are not real.文章源自:力哥爱英语(ienglish521.com)力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2502.html
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.文章源自:力哥爱英语(ienglish521.com)力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2502.html
塔楼里的阶级掌控权力,广场中的网络聚结影响力,究竟是哪一种力量,改变并推动了历史的发展?文章源自:力哥爱英语(ienglish521.com)力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2502.html
旧权力阶级制度vs.新社会网络之间的碰撞,《时代》百大影响人物尼尔‧弗格森畅销话题巨作──《广场与塔楼:从印刷术诞生到网路社群力爆发,颠覆权力阶级,改变人类历史的network》,对世界历史转折点做精彩的重铸。文章源自:力哥爱英语(ienglish521.com)力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2502.html
网络(network)──是改变人类命运的千年史,颠覆权力阶级的恒久力量。文章源自:力哥爱英语(ienglish521.com)力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2502.html
过去我们所学习的历史,大多是关于帝王将相、统治阶级的历史,而忽略或贬低了同样有影响力但能见度较低的网络历史。纵观过往,高塔中的阶级制度声称要统治,但通常真正的力量存在于下方城镇广场的网络中,因为它倾向创新。透过网络,革命性的想法得以传播,移转并颠覆权力。历史上最叱吒风云的改变,经常是由缺乏文献记载、非正式组织的群体所实现。文章源自:力哥爱英语(ienglish521.com)力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2502.html
21世纪被称为网络时代。然而,在《广场与塔楼》中,弗格森主张网络其实一直都存在。从促成宗教革命的印刷机和传道者,到领导美国革命的共济会成员,破坏教宗和国王控制之旧秩序的就是网络。本书紧扣社会网路的发展历史,以及它们跟传统的权力阶级制度之间时而紧张、时而激烈的关係,特别是在两个重要的革命与创新时期,情势逆转,网路获得优势。这两个时期,一个是印刷技术产生的时代,另一个就是我们现在所处的互联网时代。文章源自:力哥爱英语(ienglish521.com)力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2502.html
《广场与塔楼》跳脱以往从统治者或阶级制度探讨历史发展的角度,讲述了社会网络的兴起、衰落和再崛起的故事,并以丰富的图表说明网络理论、聚类等概念,改变我们对过去和现在的理解。网络的演变,是否可能带来灾难性的后果?对于当前许多事件,例如伊斯兰国的兴起,Apple、Google、Amazon等网路时代企业巨擘的特质,都有许多以古鑑今的对比与诠释,提供读者另类省思。文章源自:力哥爱英语(ienglish521.com)力哥爱英语-https://ienglish521.com/2502.html
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