A lot, however, has happened since – including the second wave, the emergence of scary new variants, and the roll-out of vaccines. Concluding his narrative last autumn, Ferguson predicts the Covid-19 pandemic will be remembered not in the same league as the 1918 Spanish influenza, but rather the (now largely forgotten) Asian flu of 1957. Another problem with this book is that it is already outdated, said Mark Whitaker in The Washington Post. Stream or download thousands of included titles. When not playing with such grand concepts, he indulges in tiresome liberal-baiting – describing Black Lives Matter as a “contagion”. Doom The Politics of Catastrophe By: Niall Ferguson Narrated by: Niall Ferguson Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins 4.5 (92 ratings) Try for 0.00 1 credit a month to use on any title, yours to keep (you’ll use your first credit on this title). Was the pandemic a black swan (an unexpected event that catches humanity unawares), a grey rhino (an obviously dangerous event that people nonetheless do nothing about), or a dragon king (an event that flattens civilisation)?įerguson says it was a grey rhino. His book, however, is an unconvincing blend of “statements of the readily apparent” and laborious theorising. In January 2020, as he reminds us on the opening page, he predicted that it would create a global pandemic, and “was regarded as eccentric”. Ferguson has one good reason to claim to be an authority on catastrophes, said David Aaronovitch in The Times: he was quick to grasp the seriousness of Covid-19.
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