The Square and the Tower

The 21st century has been declared the age of networks. In this book, Neil Ferguson argues that networks have always been with us, from the structure of the brain to the food chain, from family trees to freemasons. Hierarchies housed in high towers asserted their power throughout history, but the real power was often in the city square below.

Networks tend to innovate, aren't they? And it is the revolutionary ideas spread through the networks that are creeping everywhere like an infection. Conspiracy theorists certainly love fancy fiction about such networks, but this does not mean that these networks are not real.

This book presents the global history of the rise, fall, and new rise of networks, from the gods of Ancient Rome to the ruling dynasties of the Renaissance, from the founding fathers of the United States to Facebook.

How network theory is reshaping our understanding of the past and present predicts which hierarchies will withstand the latest wave of network attacks and which will fail.