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Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Disasters are inherently hard to predict. But when catastrophe strikes, we ought to be better prepared than the Romans were when Vesuvius erupted or medieval Italians when the Black Death struck. We have science on our side, after all. Yet the responses of many developed countries to a new pathogen from China were badly bungled. Why?

While populist rulers certainly performed poorly in the face of the pandemic, Niall Ferguson argues that more profound pathologies were at work - pathologies already visible in our responses to earlier disasters.

Drawing from multiple disciplines, including economics and network science, Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe offers not just a history but a general theory of disaster. As Ferguson shows, governments must learn to become less bureaucratic and more "antifragile" if we are to avoid the impending doom of irreversible decline.

© Niall Ferguson 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

Magisterial reach ... immensely readable ... Ferguson [applies] his prodigious intellect to placing the present pandemic on a wider historic canvas.
Financial Times
This is not just about a virus but a collision of politics, panic, digital media, human behaviour and incompetence. Niall Ferguson's Doom looks at each of these aspects, putting them into historical perspective in a book of dazzling range and rigour.
The Spectator
Niall Ferguson's Doom is often insightful, productively provocative and downright brilliant.
New York Times
A superb history of the lost art of handling a crisis.
The Telegraph
Stimulating ... Each chapter of this thought-provoking book is worth reading for the ideas, perceptiveness and well-told stories of landmark events ... It's a useful reminder that what may feel like having unprecedented restrictions imposed on our lives today is nothing new... readers will find much to relish.
Evening Standard
Elegant, pacey, gripping ... a wealth of deep research.
The Economist
Doom covers an impressive sweep of history at a lively narrative clip and weaves a lot of disparate strands together into an engaging picture.
The Guardian
Timely and refreshing ... An informative, amusing and thought-provoking read that is full of steadying good sense for these troubled times.
South China Morning Post
Performs a crucial public service ... Doom is far more than just a page-turner, though that it certainly is: it's that most precious of things in a history book - an account of the past that truly helps us understand where we are today.
CapX
Author Niall Ferguson
Narrator Niall Ferguson
Duration 16 hours and 36 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9780241510674
Format Audiobook
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Genre Constitution: government and the state, General and world history, History, History: plagues, diseases etc, Political economy, Political science and theory, Politics and government, Social impact of disasters, Society and Social Sciences
Availability AU, GB, IE

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