La plaza y la torre

Much of the history is explained in a hierarchical way: it has to do with popes, kings or presidents. But, what if it were so for the simple fact that they have been the ones who have created the historical archives? What if we were omitting and relegating the influence of equally powerful but less visible organizing networks? The 21st century has been heralded as the Network Age, but in this book Niall Ferguson reminds us that there is nothing new about social networks. From the days of the printing press and the preachers who carried out the Reformation to the Freemasons who led the American Revolution, it was organizational networks that disrupted the established order. Thus, far from being a novelty, our era is rather an extension of the previous one, with the computer in the central place that printed paper once occupied. Networks are prone to clustering and sprawl, but first and foremost they are prone to interruptions. Thus, the conflicts of the past find disconcerting parallels today, both on Facebook, and in the Islamic State and the Trumpian world.