Niall Ferguson is the Laurence A. Tisch professor of history at Harvard University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He also is a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, as well as founder and managing director of the advisory firm Greenmantle LLC. The author of 14 books, Ferguson recently published the first volume of his biography of Henry Kissinger, "Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist." His other books include "The House of Rothschild," "Civilization: The West and the Rest" and "The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die." Ferguson's six-part PBS television series, "The Ascent of Money," won the International Emmy for best documentary in 2009. He is a recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Service, the Hayek Prize for Lifetime Achievement and the Ludwig Erhard Prize for Economic Journalism.