What was it about the civilization of Western Europe that allowed it to trump the outwardly superior empires of the Orient? The answer, Niall Ferguson argues, was that the West developed six 'killer applications' that the Rest lacked competition, science, democracy, medicine, consumerism and the work ethic The key question today is whether or not the West has lost its monopoly on these six things If so, Ferguson warns, we may be living through the end of Western ascendancy Civilization takes readers on their own extraordinary journey around the world - from the Grand Canal at Nanjing to the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul from Machu Picchu in the Andes to Shark Island, Namibia from the proud towers of Prague to the secret churches of Wenzhou It is the story of sailboats, missiles, land deeds, vaccines, blue jeans and Chinese Bibles It is the defining narrative of modern world history