What's this? This is an unbiased just-the-facts news timeline ('newsline') about Niall Ferguson, created by Newslines contributors. Become a contributor

Niall Ferguson

Niall Ferguson17 posts

Niall FergusonĀ is a Scottish historian and political commentator.

Latest News view > Click for Biography view
18 Oct, 2015

Joins Hoover Institution

Hired0 Comments

After more than a decade of visiting as an adjunct senior fellow, Ferguson will leaveĀ Harvard University to work full time at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University from July 2016. He says he is attracted by Stanford’s prestige and its proximity to Silicon Valley.

I have always loved that it straddles what can sometimes seem like a chasm between academic research and policy debate…A key point is that there is nothing like the Hoover Institution at Harvard…Sometimes I wish there were Hoover Institutions in all the Ivy League schools…The notion that it is a conservative institution is misleading…It only looks conservative because it is a broad church located in a wider academic diocese that is, in some respects, rather narrow.

Gilligan:

[Ferguson is]Ā a first-rate scholar of history and economic history, and a great fit for our mission.

3 Jul, 2015

Financial Times Greek crisis op-ed

Writes Article0 Comments

Ferguson writes an editorial about the Greek financial crisis in The Financial Times.

Yes, it is quite possible that, in this weekendā€™s theatre-of-the-absurd referendum, the Greek people may vote ā€œNoā€ to a programme that is no longer available, and that this (despite their prime ministerā€™s protestations to the contrary) may ultimately lead to their departure from the European monetary union. But as recently as the 1970s we would have had to worry about much nastier scenarios. There would have been a real communist left, poised to proclaim the dictatorship of the proletariat. And there would have been a real military right, ready to crush the left by imposing martial law.Ā Neither of these things is now conceivable.

Politically, most of the world has never been more boring. Instead of the alarms and excursions of the past, we now have technocrats versus populists. Any violence is verbal and the technocrats nearly always win. Even in the US, despite what you might glean from television news, the real story of our time is the decline of violence. With their cities far safer than they were in the 1970s and 1980s, Americans can peacefully ponder such questions as: ā€œCan a man become a woman?ā€ (Yes.) And ā€œCan a white woman become a black woman?ā€ (No.) Will a civil war ever be fought over same-sex marriage? It seems unlikely. Does a president risk assassination by reforming healthcare? I think not.

18 Sep, 2011

Ferguson, Hirsi Ali marry

Marriage0 Comments

HirsiAli-NaillFergussonFerguson andĀ Hirsi Ali marry in Boston, Massachusetts. The wedding isĀ attended by Henry Kissinger, who was the subject of a biography by Ferguson. None of Ferguson’s three children are understood to have been at the ceremony. Ā Hirsi Ali is due to give birth to the coupleā€™s first child in the next few months.

12 Feb, 2010

Leaves wife for Hirsi Ali

Breakup0 Comments

Ferguson splits up with Douglas, his wife of 16 years, after a string of adulterous affairs, for his mistress, Hirsi Ali. Ferguson confessed his affair to Douglas last summer. His wife tries to save the marriage, flying to Manhattan to be with Ferguson in November.Ā Douglas has met Hirsi Ali on a number of occasions. Ferguson has consulted lawyers in the U.S., while Douglas plans to file for divorce and has consulted a London-based law firm. According to a source in the Daily Mail, Ferguson has been unfaithful eight times over the past five years.

6 May, 2009

Hirsi Ali, Ferguson meet

Romance0 Comments

Ferguson andĀ Hirsi Ali meet at a party for Time magazineā€™s ā€˜100 Most Influential People In The Worldā€™ issue in New York in May, 2009.Ā They areĀ introduced by Belinda Luscombe, the magazineā€™s art editor. Luscombe:

Ā I think that is where they met for the first time. In all the years I have known Ayaan, sheā€™s never had a boyfriend. Sheā€™s gorgeous, but with a fatwa, itā€™s tricky to find guys.

18 Apr, 1964

Niall Ferguson born in Glasgow, Scotland

Birth0 Comments

Niall Campbell Douglas Ferguson is born in Glasgow, Scotland toĀ Campbell (a physician) and Molly (a physicist) Ferguson.

Both my grandfathers fought in wars: my father’s father fought in the first world war, where he was shot and gassed and suffered permanentlung damage, while my mother’s father fought the Japanese in Burma and contracted tuberculosis. It was my mother’s father who was the biggest influence. He was a journalist. He was the one who encouraged me to write. I used to write plays and short stories at school, giving him things I had written as Christmas presents. The relationship between us was intense. We were on the same wavelength about so many things. He had three great rules: trust no one, tell them nothing and to thine own self be true. Those were his three great principles. The west of Scotland is a tough place.

My father gave me a very strong sense of self-discipline and the moral value of work. As a doctor who worked long hours and who was dedicated to his job, he signalled to me that work was a noble thing. My mother encouraged my creative side…That combination of my father’s strict discipline and my mother’s sense that if something really valuable was to be had, then you could bend the rules a bit, was really valuable.