BBC Niall and Past, Present, Future Tense Tweets of the Day (5/28/12)

Niall Ferguson--speaking of John Locke

Wazzup? PBS has an interesting new series: 'Civilization, the West and the Rest with Niall Ferguson.' Great to order out Chinese while you're watching this. The next installment is tomorrow night (Tuesday, May 29)

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/civilization-west-and-rest/#.T8O8NsVRIuE

John Locke advised displacing the Native Americans

Niall has a cool, hip way of connecting  historical concepts not seen since BBC's  Michael Wood and his tight jeans. I respect Niall, and agree with him about the founding fathers and slavery--how did that happen?

The following books reenforce the Chinese info.

I've read the first of Gavin Menzie's book and in the middle of the second. Great for a larger non-Euro-centric worldview.

Did Columbus see Chinese settlers?

http://www.1421.tv/

Was Leonardo a plagiarist?

http://www.1434.tv/

These books are written by a former British Naval officer, so don't expect the perfection of David McCullough prose. But the two books are interesting.

 Here's a NY Times article about Ferguson's series:
'How the West Became the World’s Alpha Culture ‘Civilization: The West and the Rest,’ on PBS'

 http://tv.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/arts/television/civilization-the-west-and-the-rest-on-pbs.html

My question with these 'big, bigger, biggest pictures' of history is that frequently we don't credit the billions of people enslaved to produce the emperor's accomplishments, or the success of  'the West.' Our Civil War began by recognizing the necessity of acknowledging all contributions. Anyone ever hear of retribution for the Chinese families whose ancestors built the Great Wall? How about the new slavery in the huge Chinese factory-cities? How much do we believe in democracy if our Ipad becomes more expensive? Is 'greed' our worldwide mantra?

Grand Canal, China. Why should the Emperor get credit for this?