If you are eager to see the essence of the world and have a broader cognitive boundary, I highly recommend reading these 8 books.
These books will reveal the essence and complexity of the world, open up new perspectives, and free you from being limited to the present and confined to narrow frameworks.
- "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order"
"China is not just a country, but a civilization 'disguised' as a nation."
The author of this book is a well-known scholar in the field of international politics and former director of the Harvard International and Regional Studies Institute.
The author believes that after the Cold War, the determining factor in the world order is manifested in seven or eight civilizations. In the post-Cold War world, the basic root of conflict is no longer ideology, but cultural differences, and the "clash of civilizations" will dominate the world.
To some extent, the current world order is moving towards a multipolar world without a center, with different poles developing in different ways.
First, according to Huntington, Western civilization has continued its decline since the early 20th century, a trend that may last for decades or even centuries.
Second, Islamic civilization has great development potential, but it still lacks core countries and a sense of cohesion in the short term.
Third, Russian civilization is showing signs of rise and development. As the Russian Eurasianist Gumilyov said: "The composition of a national culture, state, and feudal society is in many ways like a living organism... The Western world is at the end of its strength and no longer has a cultural absolute advantage; the Russian nation is a young and vibrant nation that will play a role in the world historical process."
Finally, the position and role of Japanese and Indian civilizations in the future world order should not be overlooked.
The book also analyzes the influence of China as a civilization-based country on the world order.
Certainly, the framework of the clash of civilizations cannot explain all phenomena in world politics. Conflicts of interest, ideas, and ideologies between different countries and groups will affect the direction of world politics. However, in the long run, conflicts or integration between civilizations will have a lasting impact on the international order.
- "Wealth, Poverty, and Politics"
What factors contribute to the rise, prosperity, and decline of nations?
What endowments make certain groups more likely to acquire wealth?
What are the causes of income inequality and wealth disparity, and how have they caused significant social and political conflicts in countries around the world?
In this new work, economic master Thomas Sowell uses rich historical materials, calm observation, and precise analysis to deeply explore one of the most explosive topics in today's world.
He debunks ambiguous data and sensational theories from authorities and economists, and reveals the issue of inequality among nations, groups, and individuals in the most plain and understandable language from four aspects: geography, culture, society, and politics.
Sowell's research goes beyond the biases of different factions and theories, not only revealing the truth of the world to us but also providing us with a way to observe, think, and understand the essence of the world.
- "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies"
Why did Europeans conquer the New World with guns, germs, and steel, instead of Africans or Native Americans crossing the ocean to conquer Europe?
Why do some societies have well-developed social organizations and flourishing cultural achievements, while others remain in a primitive state without metal tools and rely on hunting and gathering for survival?
What determines the distribution of power and wealth in the world today?
This book attempts to answer these questions.
In the author's view, the emergence of food production gave the Eurasian continent an advantage in the development of civilization. Writing, technology, government, and other aspects are all "by-products" of food surplus.
The abundance of plant and animal species and the orientation of the continental axis determine the early development of food production in different continents, which affects the different historical development trajectories followed by different races.
Therefore, the abundance of environment and resources nourished the Western civilization to take root and flourish on fertile land, and it was the surplus of food, not racial advantages in biology, that played a role.
Today, while the wheel of human history described by Diamond is still moving forward, the crises faced by modern civilized societies far exceed the conquest and subjugation represented by guns, germs, and steel.
However, as a whole, humanity can still find answers to global climate change, pandemics, nuclear weapons, and resource depletion threats by seeking answers from the grand narrative of human history in "Guns, Germs, and Steel".
- "The Order of Time"
Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does the "flow" of time mean? Do we exist within time, or does time exist within us?
Carlo Rovelli invites us to contemplate the essence of time, a timeless question, using poetic language.
In our intuition, time is universal throughout the universe, flowing steadily from the past to the future, measurable by clocks.
However, Rovelli reveals to us a strange universe where the properties of time collapse one by one. At the most fundamental level, time disappears. He tells us that our perception of the passage of time depends on our perspective...
Poetry, philosophy, physics converge at the top. This is the aesthetic of the self-consistent universe, the order of time. This book contains a lot of knowledge and will definitely refresh your understanding after reading it!
- "The Origins of Wealth"
The author of this book is the head of the Oxford University New Economic Thinking Institute and a partner at McKinsey & Company's Global Research Institute.
"The Origins of Wealth" traces the development of economics and examines the current economy from five perspectives: dynamics, subjects, interactions, emergence, and evolution.
It explains the evolutionary forces that promote wealth growth through business design, physical technology, and social technology. It proposes four application areas of complex economics: strategy, organization, finance, and public policy, helping you use this era of the Internet of Things to win in the business society with "The Wealth of Nations"!
Whether you are a business leader, investor, entrepreneur, or someone who is passionate about creating wealth for society, or an innovator, policy maker, scholar, or ordinary person interested in economics, social organization, public policy, and science, "The Origins of Wealth" will provide you with a cutting-edge perspective to help you understand all issues related to wealth creation and the essence of wealth!
- "How the World Thinks: A Global History of Philosophy"
In this groundbreaking philosophical work with a global perspective, the author, after traveling to various countries, records in writing to draw a broad map of human thought for readers.
There are many mysteries in human history, one of which is why written philosophy flourished in China, India, and ancient Greece during the same period in history.
These early philosophies had a profound impact on their respective cultures in different parts of the world, and the "philosophy" that the Western world speaks of occupies less than half of this story.
Therefore, the author expands our philosophical perspective from this book, extensively explores the philosophical thinking of Japan, India, China, the Islamic world, and the oral traditions of early thinkers in Africa and Australia, which we know very little about.
He also interviewed thinkers from around the world and raised questions such as why Western thinking tends to be individualistic and why secularization has a much lower impact on the Islamic world than on Europe...
In response to these questions, the author provides profound insights into the development of different regions and focuses on the similarities in order to show that by understanding how others think, we take the first step towards understanding ourselves.
- "The Common Sense of the State: Power, Geography, and Culture"
This book uses the methods of comparative politics to observe and describe some typical countries in the world in a simple and in-depth manner. It selects the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, India, Mexico, Nigeria, and Iran as the models for analysis, and tells the "common sense of the state" that citizens need to know from five aspects: history, system, political culture, current situation, and debates.
The author closely links the history and geography of the country with its contemporary development, uses a large amount of space to trace the history of each country, intersperses maps to directly show the geopolitical environment of each country, and emphasizes the influence of historical origins and geographical environments on the changes in political culture, system changes, and the development of contemporary issues.
In the narrative process, the author also emphasizes the ethnic cultural characteristics, economic development status, and education system of different regions.
- "Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace"
The author of this book, Hans Morgenthau, is an American political scientist, international lawyer, master of international relations theory, master of classical realism, and the creator of the "power politics school" in international law.
This book is a classic work of the realism school in Western international relations theory.
As indicated by the subtitle "The Struggle for Power and Peace," the book aims to reveal the essence of international politics-power struggles, and explore ways to create world peace.
The author explains the six principles of political realism, which are the core of his theory, and points out that countries in the international community struggle for their own power and interests.
In the existing international system, only by reaching compromises and reconciliations between countries through traditional diplomatic means can a world state with central government authority be formed to pave the way for universal peace.