Conversations with History: Niall Ferguson

[turkeylad]

This man is a totally unquestioning product of his Unionist Protestant right-wing background. Everything he does is made to fit that frame. He's a Bourdieuan nightmare. These guys have and always wii lick the Imperialists' collective ass. I bet you he's over-sensitive to criticism.

[plainstudman]

@turkeylad which empire are you referring to... the monogl empire where individual soldiers would get orders to kill 400 enemies each and wipe out 5 million tungus nation and wipe out over 30 milion, over 30% of chinese popluation, or the qin dynasty who came to power by slaughtering hundreds of thousand of enemies POWS and killing over 3 million to make the great wall, or the british empire and america which ahs given the world railroads, highways, internet, medicine etc etc.

[plainstudman]

@turkeylad i am guessing u r from turkey....hm you are the one to talk???

[KiAdoMundi]

Why can't he recognise that his name is Niall and not Neil?

[cityflyguy]

I believe that in the Empire other cultures were of great curiosity to those British, and were not necesarily dismissed as worthless, non christian, non British, non European etc. Just look at Indian born Kipling and his affection for India, the way in which members of the Raj were quite happy to marry Indian women and have children. That cultural respect and integration I dont believe has been as widespread in other Empires. Could the same be said of a US official in Vietnam, Afghan, Taiwan?

[cityflyguy]

The Empire brought stability, it had the ability to allow moral questioning of its actions, it was flexible enough to take onboard these criticism. One example being the abolition of slavery. It also was as much about diplomacy as it was taking by force, if the British were to meet strong resistance they would happily welcome that resisting party. Whether it was the Gurkhas or the Maroons among countless others, if you put up a good fight you would be respected and offered a fair deal.

[cityflyguy]

The point Niall makes is that the British Empire was no worse than preceeding empires or the following empires/world powers. And should be viewed fairly with comparison. Would the sub continent that became India/Pakistan of been better off under the rule of the many constantyly warring factions of emperors, tribal and religous leaders? And, with the subcontinent now being partitioned (and the huge death toll that the split resulted in, and still adding to) is it a recipe for disaster?

[1888junkteam]

excellent work!

[infokemp]

Books to read Asia's deadly Triangle Carol Quiggles Tragedy and Hope Dawkins the Selfish Gene Hitichens Jefferson Author of America Nial Fergusons Assent of Money Colossus Fall of the American Empire Empire War of the World Check them out.

[BSFBOPE]

this prick insults the great e h carr, id like to see him wirte anything half as good as carr

[chitch1776]

Carr was a shallow ideologue, a dedicated Marxist, and thus a poor historian. Good historians observe events objectively- as Niall does- and not through rose-tinted glasses- as Carr did.

[andersoncouncil65]

Are you kidding? Ferguson is a revisionist who always concludes that imperialism is a good thing. Through his rose-tinted glasses, he always sees the glory of the British Empire.

[chitch1776]

The legacy of the British Empire is largely a positive one. Look around the world and list the good places to live. Chances are that, at one time, they were under British dominion or influence.

[vikramkrishnan]

Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, Malawi, Sri Lanka, Belize, the list goes on

[chitch1776]

Compare those places to comparable ones that were not under British influence. By the way, I've been to three of those countries, and found them somewhat impoverished, but also safe, fairly clean, and orderly. Just listing places that are not paradise does nothing to prove that British influence was not positive.

[vikramkrishnan]

Nigeria, Burma etc etc

What abt the partitions of India, Palestine, Ireland, Cyprus ? Consequences of the policy of divide et impera...

[chitch1776]

To be fair, you have some good points, and I wouldn't argue that everywhere the British held dominion is a paradise today. What I will argue is that, respective to the region in question, those areas that adopted British law and economic policy flourish today. And I have been to Nigeria - it was a wonderful visit, the areas I was in were prosperous by African standards, and the people seemed content with their system of government. Whenever you have a continent with limited agricultural

[chitch1776]

potential and nearly 700 million people, there will be strains on and conflicts for resources. The British system has proved far better than others at addressing the important issues of governance.

[vikramkrishnan]

Well I am willing to concede one thing :

the problem was worsened by the fact that the British empire implemented protectionist policies in the colonies and free trade at home. If we had genuine two way free trade with competition, the story might have been very different

[siebelseibel76]

It must bother you that Great Britian no longer holds great influence. I recommend you compensate by living through the American Government. Pretend that everytime America wins a war, you become more of a man.

[tom500k]

Ferguson -- just another running lackey academic whore shilling neo-cons. No wonder that the establishment, which has stolen 99% of the world's wealth loves this jerk.

Pity that Harry Keisler refuses to challenge Feguson by asking challenging follow up questions.

[8data]

history is the best subject

[meatsause]

my name is niall the irish way

[niallgar]

My name is spelled the same way. The pronunciation occurs due to the fact that the letter "i" was pronounced like the letter "e" 400 years ago.

[imangrynow]

Who cares?!

[UltimateVenom]

it's not neill it's niall.

it's N-I-A-L-L

I is pronounced like I,

not E.

niall, like nile.

niall.

not neil.

[pjn45]

He is scottish, its pronnounced like Neil, I believe pronouncing it Ni-all is the Irish way.

[jamalloyman]

My ambition in life is to be interviewed by Harry!

[AbtinX]

Your ambition in life should be finding the man who made the intro-music. That man has gotta be insane or something

[Versus1984]

Sux big time, doesn't it!?

[lexiustia]

dont know, its kind of growing on me.

[8data]

i enjoy it

[AbtinX]

It's a masterpiece, indeed. It just keeps growing on you causing ridicilous smirks of joy to emerge at the mere thought of hearing it again. Who can say that about most music nowadays?

[goblins87]

@AbtinX

His name is Philip Freihofner, oboist and composer. From his profile on American Composers Forum: "First music sale (1984) was a theme for talk-show series: "Conversations with History" made with a monophonic synth (CAT) & Roland Echoplex."

[AbtinX]

@goblins87 thank you!