What Is Modernity, And Is It A Helpful Concept For Understanding The World Today?

“America’s ‘Oh Sh*t!’ Moment”, written by Niall Ferguson, a historian who teaches at Harvard University, in 2011, explores why civilizations collapse, and how America can avoid this. He does not focus only on America, but many civilizations in the past that have collapsed. Niall Ferguson is the author of Civilization: The West and The Rest. The article is creatively and cleverly written using the metaphor of modern technology to describe the way in which the societal collapse occurs. This shows that the article was written for adults who are highly educated and understand and relate to technology. The article discusses the possibilities of what complete collapse would look like in American society. I believe the author successfully

The author, Robert B. Marks introduces the book, The Origins of the Modern World by introducing the reader to a global narrative of the origins of the modern world starting from 1400 to the present. The book presents the rise of the west as an issue of globalization of Asia, Africa, and the New World. Throughout the book, we see the connection made by the author between the environmental condition and the present economic status of a particular place. By the end of the book, readers are able to understand and reason out what created and solidified a gap between the east and the west, industrialized and non-industrialized and parts of the world that today are defined as the modern world.

Civilization: The West and the Rest, presented by Niall Ferguson, is a documentary in which Ferguson reveals what he calls the six killer applications which has helped Western civilization dominate over everyone else. These six applications are competition, science, property, medicine, consumerism, and work. Ferguson asks many questions over the course of the series as well as provides examples as to how Western civilization has surpassed other nations and empires. Ferguson’s main question in each episode is, “If we lose our monopoly over apps like these, could Western civilization be consigned to history.” This paper will analyze Ferguson’s questions and the examples he provides for the killer applications of competition, science, property, medicine, consumerism, and work, as well as his conclusions as to why the West has risen to the top, how the rest are passing up the West, as well as his conclusions to if the West can remain above the rest.

Over time some societies become more modern than others creating an unequal balance among other states globally. It is the thought that the modernization theory in some societies, are left behind because of advances in technology and within the economy also (Macionis and Plummer, 2012:p 306). Rostow (1990: p12) suggested that the modernization theory is created by an outside government or corporation to introduce new technologies and build industries to make money. As the four phases of modernization are explained above, it is simple to understand how these societies built upon modernization can create global inequalities and unequal balance within an underdeveloped society. However,

The age of globalization began in the 17th century when different parts of the world came in contact with one another by establishing trade relations. While globalization connected different parts of the world, it also gave rise to capitalism. The events leading up to globalization and in turn, capitalism, are interpreted differently by historians such as Timothy Brook, in his book Vermeer’s Hat and by Greg Grandin, in his book Empire of Necessity. This essay focuses on the interpretations of globalization and capitalism by these authors and discusses the impacts of capitalism between the 17th and 19th century. Brook argues that rise of global capitalism initiated through the movement and transculturation of products, people and ideas

From the seventeenth century to the late twentieth century there has been a change in society creating a modernist era which saw the ending of feudalism and the devotement of capitalism. (Hudson, 2003:3) This period saw changes in the way individuals lived their lives and viewed the world; there were political changes and systems of punishment. The changes stirred

At this point of time, globalization has grown to be a phenomenon that is significantly important economically, politically, and culturally. The amalgamation and incorporation of the world economy around the globe has reshaped business. Not only this, it has created "new social classes, different jobs, unimaginable wealth, and, occasionally, wretched poverty" (Kiggundu 2002, p. 4) by restructuring the lives of the individuals. For some, globalization is associated to modernism and contemporary practices. Others understand it as American domination (particularly those living in Asia). On the other hand, some people believe it to be the emasculation of America (Kiggundu 2002, p. 4).

Modernity in all its’ forms has changed the world, for good and bad, since the eighteenth century. The Enlightenment, starting around 1750, is often considered the beginning of the “modern age”- the time when improvements in science, thought, technology, and philosophy began. After the Enlightenment came colonialism, a form of political dominance exercised substantially, but not exclusively, by the British. Colonialism shows a good idea of using modern ideas and thought, but how the way it was carried out did not respect human rights. Similarly, the Holocaust was a modern project that was extremely inhumane and did not end well. Nazism was a different and more direct type of racism carried out against the Jews, leading to negative progress. The way South American mine workers were treated also reflected contradictions to modernity and did not respect human rights. In 1978, the particular book of Let Me Speak, illustrates how a specific family struggled with the realities of the Bolivian mines and how that also created negative progress. The colonialism ideals, the

Modernity, it is a macro process of transition from traditional to modern society. “Formation of a modern political map of the world began in early 1800 in Western Europe and maybe characterized as the product of the twin revolutions.” European colonization of the New World, the economic and political development of new territories led to significant changes in the political map. Modernity it is a complex of multi-faceted process that took a place in Europe during the 18th century and had covered all aspects of society. The modernity of the production meant the industrialization - is constantly growing use of machines. In the social sphere modernization is closely linked with urbanization, an unprecedented growth of cities, which led to prevailing in the economic life of society. In the political sphere modernity meant the democracy of political structures, laying the preconditions for the formation of a civil society and rule of law. In the spiritual realm associated with secularization -: the release of all spheres of public and private life from the separation of religion and the church, their worldliness and intensive development of literacy, education, scientific knowledge. All of these are inextricably linked to each other processes of change emotional attitudes of man,

Globalization involves a variety of links expanding and tightening a web of political, economic and cultural inter-connections. Most attention has been devoted to merchandise trade as it has had the most immediate (or most visible) consequences, but capital, in and of itself, has come to play an arguably even larger role than the trade in material goods. Human movements also link previously separate communities. Finally, there is the cultural connection. All the individual data would indicate that we are undergoing a process of compression of international time and space and an intensification of international relations. The separation of production and consumption that is the heart of modern capitalism appears to have

Looking back at the world in the past few hundred years, it would have been difficult to imagine that one day, majority of Western Europe would come to dominate the world in global economy (Landes, European Exceptionalism: A Different Path, 1998). Frank (2001) described the process of which the western society

There are many different perspectives on the growth of modernity. Society is constantly changing as more time passes by. People like Emile Durkheim and Max Weber both offer their own individual perspective on how the growth of modernity came about and how we have come to understand today’s society. In the 1890s period Emile Durkheim a sociologist, in France watched the transformation of society go from a ‘primitive’ stance into something more complex also known as ‘organic solidarity’. Max Weber a German sociologist on the other hand, his view was in regards to how the growth of government was a driving force in modernity to maintain order, organisation and administration of specialised functions. Both theses sociologists’ theories are

To define exactly what a modern person is, can be a very difficult task. When it comes to a person being ¨up to date¨, that could change in a matter of minutes. New things are constantly coming out and it makes it hard to keep up. But that is only questioning one person, what about a whole society? How does one judge a town or even country to say it is modern. A major key to deciding that, is the technology they have. In this day in age, technology has becoming a huge part in our lives, and one could say it´s the main component that has separated us from older times. Another separator is a person´s goals. These days most of society would enjoy some type of technology. Whether it be a phone, or camera, or computer, or television. Long ago, a man wouldn´t strive to save money for an iPhone 6 or a Mac computer. Times have changed, and so has our ambitions. The last piece to what separates us from the old would be our clothing. Fashion has

The term Modernity was coined by Charles Baudelaire. It also refers to post medieval, post traditional historical period which is marked by a move from feudalism towards modernization (capitalism, industrialisation, rationalisation). But conceptually, it also relates to the modern era and to modernism, but forms a distinct concept.

The Making of the Modern World by Erik Ringmar, an overview of the events in history that have led to the modern political scene. Diplomacy by Stephen McGlinchey, the evolution of diplomacy and big events that have showcased the power of diplomacy. One World, Many Actors by Carmen Gebhard, the transition of global relations from international to trans-national focused on the role of individuals and groups. As a scholar, these three texts have changed my present thoughts on how the world’s international relations and diplomacy have been an integral part in making the global market. I am an economics major with an international trade and development concentration, learning about how the politics affect trade and businesses, is amazing. My