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. Yet in 2020 the responses of many developed countries, including the United States, to a new virus from China were badly bungled. 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. 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. Setting the annus horribilis of 2020 in historical perspective, Niall Ferguson explains why we are getting worse, not better, at handling disasters.ĭisasters are inherently hard to predict. "All disasters are in some sense man-made." Penguin Press on Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe: He is also a regular Bloomberg Opinion columnist. His many prizes include the International Emmy for Best Documentary (2009), the Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Service (2010), and the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award (2016). His newest book, Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe, was published by Penguin Press in May 2021. He is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the managing director of Greenmantle LLC. He is the author of sixteen books, including Civilization, The Great Degeneration, Kissinger, 1923–1968: The Idealist, and The Ascent of Money. Niall Ferguson is one of the world’s most renowned historians. This project was born during the early weeks of the pandemic, and offers an illuminating vision for a post-COVID world.Īll HKS affiliates are welcome to attend register using the RSVP link above.
Allison, will discuss his acclaimed new volume Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe, a sweeping reflection on lessons learned from past successes-and failures-in crisis management. For this session, the Applied History Working Group is delighted to welcome its Co-Chair Niall Ferguson, the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
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