Professor Niall Ferguson looks with a historian’s and economist’s eye at a wide variety of disasters in the past – and lessons for the future.
Monday, 06. September 2021, 18:30 – 20:00 h
At the University of Zurich, Rämistrasse 71, 8006 Zurich, KOH-B-10
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” got published in German language by DVA (Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt) on September 13, 2021.
Niall Ferguson is one of the best known and most respected historians of our time. He was a professor of history at Harvard University and has taught at Oxford University, Stanford University, and the London School of Economics and Political Science, among others. He is considered a specialist in financial, economic, and European history. His book on World War I published by DVA ("The Wrong War") was a great international success.