Recorded on March 14, 2018

The twenty-first century has been hailed as the Age of Networks. However, in new book “The Square and the Tower,” historian and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Niall Ferguson argues that networks have always been with us. From the cults of ancient Rome to the dynasties of the Renaissance, from the founding fathers to Facebook, “The Square and the Tower” tells the story of the rise, fall and rise of networks, shows how network theory can transform our understanding of both the past and the present, and provides a brilliant recasting of the turning points in world history, including the one we’re living through, as a struggle between old hierarchies and new social networks.

Jack Goldsmith and Niall Ferguson sit down for a discussion on the history of social networks. (Playing tim: 54:00)