Yet the responses of many developed countries to a new pathogen from China were badly bungled. 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. Immensely readable' Douglas Alexander, Financial Times 'Insightful, productively provocative and downright brilliant' New York Times A compelling history of catastrophes and their consequences, from 'the most brilliant British historian of his generation' (The Times ) Disasters are inherently hard to predict.

Readers will find much to relish' Martin Bentham, Evening Standard As Ferguson shows, governments must learn to become less bureaucratic if we are to avoid the impending doom of irreversible decline. 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. 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.

Doom niall ferguson review