Why the West Rules—for Now

Morris, a Stanford classicist and archaeologist, argues that Western dominance is neither an accident of the last two centuries nor evidence of superior culture, religion or character, but the product of geography acting on a species that is everywhere much the same. He builds a quantitative “social development index” out of energy capture, urbanisation, war-making capacity and information technology, runs it from the end of the last ice age to the present, and finds East and West trading the lead repeatedly — with the industrial revolution as only the most recent swing. The “for now” carries the argument: on his own curves the East regains the lead during the twenty-first century.

Why it’s on the list: Li Lu opens his bibliography with science, evolution and the history of human civilisation — the claim being that you should understand human beings as an evolved species and civilisation as a measurable process before forming opinions about markets or nations. Morris is the most quantitative version of that claim on the list.

Where I saw it: On Li Lu’s Recommended Book List, the 137-entry Himalaya Capital bibliography, in its first section — Science, Philosophy, Evolution, History of Human Civilization, Human History. Kyle saved the list as two X posts that between them photographed only the value-investing section; this entry came out of the source PDF.

Connections

• Li Lu — the curator, and the reason a book of deep history sits alongside Graham and Munger.
• Himalaya Capital — the firm whose bibliography this is.
• Historical Futurism — reading long-run patterns forward is exactly the move.
• Evolution — Morris’s premise that human beings are the same everywhere, so the variable is environment.
• History and Progress — the measured, indexed version of both.
• China — the half of the story the index says is returning to the lead.