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

Yet the responses of many developed countries to a new pathogen from China were badly bungled.

is his recurrent insistence that disasters and catastrophes are not just. As the historian Niall Ferguson writes in his latest book Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe, the distinction drawn between natural and man-made disasters is often misleading.What. 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. on 14 book reviews for Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe by Niall Ferguson. Were bringing you another conversation from the Dalkey Book Festival where we explore nationality, sports, history, the pandemic, and most importantly why. Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe Paperback Januby Niall Ferguson (Author) 847 ratings See all formats and editions Kindle 12.99 Read with Our Free App Audiobook 0.00 Free with your Audible trial Hardcover 24.36 32 Used from 4.98 10 New from 18.12 1 Collectible from 34.00 Paperback 26.57 2 Used from 23.46 5 New from 22. 'Insightful, productively provocative and downright brilliant' New York TimesĪ compelling history of catastrophes and their consequences, from 'the most brilliant British historian of his generation' ( The Times)ĭisasters are inherently hard to predict. Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe by Niall Ferguson why we fail to prep for disasters A sweeping account of human calamity is packed with sharp insights but proves more of a lens than a compass. Immensely readable' Douglas Alexander, Financial Times

The politics of catastrophe