AOM4 - Niall Ferguson and his Views

One thing that I found interesting in episode 4 was the bias I noticed in how Niall Ferguson presented the history. It prompted me to start wondering about how the way we learn about history and economics might be influenced by a pro-capitalist, anti-socialist bias in some ways as we live in a very strongly capitalist country. I did a little digging and found that in general, economists often come to conclusions that correlates with their political ideologies, likely due to the subtle influence of implicit bias. I also looked more specifically into Niall Ferguson's ideology and criticisms of him. He is an amazing scholar and historian, but as I look at some criticisms of him, I take great interest in wondering about which criticisms are simply more emotional responses, and which are more valid and fact based. Ferguson has been dubbed a "neo-conservative" and I think that recognizing his stance is important to take into account when seeing how he interprets history. He has some hot takes around support of the British Empire, and defending aspects of colonialism, believing that without it we wouldn't have global development like we do now. He has a very strong realist approach to what he takes from history, and some have even accused him of putting forth a "revisonist view of colonialism". He certainly regard Britain and British history with admiration, and I think that that garners the question of how his vision might be impounded by him growing up there. I think that much of what he has to say goes against more universalist theory.

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