Racism Vs. Ferguson's Power To Double Human Life Expectancy?

Although, Ferguson has been accused of prejudice and even racism (charges that have also been levelled at his work generally for its triumphalism), one line of criticism that is valid, and is that his account of history is wrong. For instance, he argues that the west’s remarkable advantage over the rest was “the power to double human life expectancy through the killer application, modern medicine” (Ferguson, 2011). Ferguson goes further on to say, “In nearly all Asian and African countries, life expectancy began to improve before the end of colonial rule” (Ferguson, 2011). Furthermore, the general critique was that he had selected the facts that supported his argument and left out important details that cast the whole story in a different light. …show more content…
Ferguson's introductory defense of counterfactuals was generally greeted as persuasive, opening the way for future discussions of their use. Fergusons routine of Informative and lucid characteristics that allowed the tiny nations of Western Europe to dominate the entire planet, goes on to speculate as to how these characteristics might be adopted by the emerging powers, particularly China. Hence, proving Fergusons concept is up to the challenge. On the other hand, the so called “Six killer apps” are merely observations supported with many unrelated and fragmented historical incidents. “Not only does he offer no novel explanation or nuanced interpretation, but his very answer is incoherent, disorganized, and downright simplistic.” (Goodreads Inc , 2012). Furthermore, despite proposing a relevant topic, Ferguson fails to properly support his thesis (Eberle, 2013 ). Therefore, his concept of the rise of the west has some outstanding strengths but is ultimately pulled down by its