Catastrophes cannot be predicted. They do not occur in cycles. And yet, when disaster strikes, we should be better prepared than the Romans were when Mount Vesuvius erupted, the people of the Middle Ages when the plague spread rapidly throughout Europe, or the Russians when the Chernobyl nuclear disaster struck. But are we? Didn’t we just experience everything in the Corona pandemic of imperial arrogance, bureaucratic numbness, and deep division? In his book “Doom,” Niall Ferguson looks with a historian’s and economist’s eye at a wide variety of disasters in human history. We must learn our lessons from these historical examples so that future disasters do not lead us to ruin.

Niall Ferguson’s book, “Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe” will be published in German language by DVA (Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt) on September 13, 2021.