Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe

'Magisterial ... Immensely readable' Douglas Alexander, Financial 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. 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 if we are to avoid the impending doom of irreversible decline.

'Insightful, productively provocative and downright brilliant' New York Times

'Stimulating, thought-provoking ... Readers will find much to relish' Martin Bentham, Evening Standard



Magisterial reach ... immensely readable ... Ferguson [applies] his prodigious intellect to placing the present pandemic on a wider historic canvas. -- Douglas Alexander ― Financial Times

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. -- Martin Bentham ― 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. -- Rafael Behr ― The Guardian