Civilization The Rest

In Niall Fergusons book, Civilization the West and the Rest, he makes a case study in Chapter 5 that a contributing factor the success of the West is the spread of consumer goods and ideas, not only in the West, but to the rest of the World. This is shown in two ways; the globalization of Western culture, and the Industrialization that made not only the Western world more connected, but made the rest of the world more connected with the West. Ferguson relates the consumption of Western culture and goods contributed to the success of the Western Civilization. This is compelling to me because even today, these effects can be seen in the globalization of Western goods and ideas to the rest of the world. Ferguson uses the example of men in the Andean wearing typical American clothing to illustrate this point. Another example that Ferguson used was the widespread popularity of the …show more content…
I find this compelling because it illustrates the correlation between political and social revolutions at the time and the correlation to the clothing worn at the time. This happened not only in the mid-to late 20th century, like Ferguson points out, but also in the late 18th and early 19th century. The French ruling elites of the late 1700s displayed their wealth and power through extravagant and excessive fashion. Additionally, with the rediscovery of the remains of Pompeii, the early 1800s was heavily influenced by Greek and Roman fashions. Ferguson shows through this case study that both the spread of the Industrial Revolution and through Western goods, specifically clothing, contributed to the success of Westernization. He shows through these examples that consumerism was very closely tied to what was happening politically and socially at the time, and how those things were shown through the clothing worn throughout America, as well as Westernized