When I First Came To

The Rise Of The West Is, Quite Simply, The Pre-eminent Historical Phenomenon Of The Second Half Of The Second Millennium After Christ.

Empires, Essentially, Create Order. In Their Absence, You Don't End Up With Lots Of Happy, Little Nation-states Full Of People Sitting Around Campfires Singing John Lennon's "imagine." What You End Up With Is Civil War, Anarchy.

All Empires Have Depended On Local Legitimacy And Local Collaboration; They Are Not Based Primarily On Coercion. An Imperial Rule That Relies Wholly On Coercion Can't Endure. It's Too Expensive.

When Bond Prices Fall, Interest Rates Soar, With Painful Consequences For All Borrowers.

When I First Came To Oxford, I Struggled To Feel Comfortable In An Anglican, Public School-dominated Institution.