Episodes

6 episodes in this season

Competition

45 min

Science

45 min

Property

45 min

Medicine

45 min

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Consumerism

45 min

Work

45 min

Civilization: Is the West History?

TV Series

201145m8.0

Documentary

Now playing

Consumerism

Season 1 · Episode 5 · Apr 3, 2011

Today the world is becoming more homogenous and, with increasingly few exceptions, big-name brands dominate main streets, high streets and shopping malls all around the globe. We dress the same; we want the same latest technological kit; we drive the same cars. But where did this uniformity come from? The answer is the combination of the industrial revolution and the consumer society. Originating in UK but flourishing most spectacularly in United States, the advent of mass consumption has changed the way the world worked. Led by the Japanese, one non-Western society after another has adopted the same model, embracing the Western way of manufacturing and consuming. Only the Muslim world has resisted. But how long can the burkha hold out against Levi's? Niall Ferguson examines whether we are now seeing the first effective challenge to the global dominance of Western consumerism.

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Civilization: Is the West History?

TV Series

201145m8.0

Documentary

Now playing

Consumerism

Season 1 · Episode 5 · Apr 3, 2011

More details