“We live in a networked world—or so we are constantly told.” The visible embodiment of any network is the city square. The town hall tower is a symbol of hierarchy, the structure of a traditional society where random interactions are impossible. In fact, it turns out that any hierarchy is a type of network. Moreover, the network can degenerate into a hierarchy, and the hierarchy can fall under the onslaught of a powerful network. British historian Niall Ferguson, in a new book, uses extensive material to show the interaction of networks and hierarchies from antiquity to the present day. Networks connecting people have always been important, but have escaped the attention of historians who have focused on hierarchies. Two “network eras” have broken the centuries-old dominance of hierarchy in the structure of society. The first began with the advent of printing, the second - with the development of information technology and the advent of the Internet. The time of networks is always a time of revolutions, transformations, creativity, as well as new dangers and challenges, such as globalization, mass migrations, global terrorism, social and political polarization of society.