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Niall ferguson catastrophe5/23/2023 ![]() And so it is with Doom.įerguson’s argument can be summarised as follows. If there are general lessons to be learned from both, they have to be pitched at such a high level of generality as to be practically useless. If there is a ‘correct’ response to an earthquake, it is unlikely to have much in common with the ‘correct’ response to an epidemic. The trouble with ‘catastrophe’ as a category is that it is too large and miscellaneous to permit much in the way of general theories. He makes larger claims and looks for overarching theories and political lessons. But, as in most of his books, Ferguson is not content to be just a historian. ![]() Doom is essentially a work of instant history. Even the parts that are not about Covid-19 have clearly been written with an eye to current events. But in fact, it is mainly about epidemic disease, in particular Covid-19. ![]() Wars, famines, floods, earthquakes, epidemics, exploding nuclear reactors, rail and air crashes and disasters at sea are all here. It professes to be a ‘general history of catastrophe’. Niall Ferguson (the historian, not to be confused with Neil Ferguson the epidemiologist) has written an interesting but peculiar book. ![]()
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