How long does it take to read Civilization?
Civilization by Niall Ferguson takes about 7 hours 39 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 7 hours 39 minutes
A weekend read
First published 2011. 417 pages, about 114,675 words.
16 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 12 hours 45 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 7 hours 39 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 4 hours 47 minutes |
The page count is the median across 12 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
What was it about the civilization of Western Europe that allowed it to trump the outwardly superior empires of the Orient? The answer, Niall Ferguson argues, was that the West developed six "killer applications"?that the Rest lacked: competition, science, democracy, medicine, consumerism and the work ethic. The key question today is whether or not the West has lost its monopoly on these six things. If so, Ferguson warns, we may be living through the end of Western ascendancy.
Subjects: World politics, International relations, Western Civilization, Hegemony, History, Civilization, modern
