In 1412, Europe was a miserable backwater, while the Orient was home to dazzling civilizations. So how did the West come to dominate the Rest? In this vital, brilliant book, Niall Ferguson reveals the 'killer applications' that did it: Competition: How Europe's small, piratical states built modern capitalism. Sciense: How innovation gave the West the military edge. Propetry Rights: How the laws of private property built the United States. Medicine: How colonialism transformed the world's health. The consumer society: HOW shopping made the Industrial Revolution. The work ethic: HOW western religious ideas brought it all together. Do we still have these winning tools, he asks? Or is another power about to triumph?