{"product_id":"doom-the-politics-of-catastrophe","title":"Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\"All disasters are in some sense man-made.\"\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSetting the annus horribilis of 2020 in historical perspective, Niall Ferguson explains why we are getting worse, not better, at handling disasters.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDisasters are inherently hard to predict. Pandemics, like earthquakes, wildfires, financial crises. and wars, are not normally distributed; there is no cycle of history to help us anticipate the next catastrophe. But when disaster 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.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eYet in 2020 the responses of many developed countries, including the United States, to a new virus from China were badly bungled. Why? Why did only a few Asian countries learn the right lessons from SARS and MERS? While populist leaders certainly performed poorly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, Niall Ferguson argues that more profound pathologies were at work--pathologies already visible in our responses to earlier disasters.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn books going back nearly twenty years, including \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eColossus\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Great Degeneration\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Square and the Tower\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e, Ferguson has studied the foibles of modern America, from imperial hubris to bureaucratic sclerosis and online fragmentation.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDrawing from multiple disciplines, including economics, cliodynamics, and network science, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDoom\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e offers not just a history but a general theory of disasters, showing why our ever more bureaucratic and complex systems are getting worse at handling them.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDoom\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e is the lesson of history that this country--indeed the West as a whole--urgently needs to learn, if we want to handle the next crisis better, and to avoid the ultimate doom of irreversible decline.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul class=\"a-unordered-list a-nostyle a-vertical a-spacing-none detail-bullet-list\"\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003ePublisher ‏ : ‎\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePenguin Books (July 5, 2022)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eLanguage ‏ : ‎\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEnglish\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003ePaperback ‏ : ‎\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e512 pages\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eISBN-10 ‏ : ‎\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e0593297393\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eISBN-13 ‏ : ‎\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e978-0593297391\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eItem Weight ‏ : ‎\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e1 pounds\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-list-item\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eDimensions ‏ : ‎\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e5.42 x 1.03 x 8.38 inches\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e","brand":"Niall Ferguson","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43248862265514,"sku":"","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0534\/5624\/0810\/products\/91Wa-a-eSSL.jpg?v=1659307300","url":"https:\/\/seaburn-books.com\/products\/doom-the-politics-of-catastrophe","provider":"Seaburn","version":"1.0","type":"link"}