Why The West Rules-- For Now : The Patterns Of ... Apr 2026

Morris dismisses "long-term lock-in" theories (which claim Western superiority was inevitable from the start) and "short-term accident" theories (which claim it was pure luck). Instead, he posits that:

In , Ian Morris argues that Western global dominance is the result of physical geography and its interaction with social development, rather than inherent cultural or biological superiority. Spanning 15,000 years of history, the book uses a "social development index" to compare the East and the West, ultimately predicting that Eastern development will likely overtake the West by 2103. Core Argument: "Maps, Not Chaps" Why the West rules-- for now : the patterns of ...