In his newest book, Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe, historian Niall Ferguson tries to produce a sweeping history of how miserably humans tend to respond to catastrophes. The results are not entirely successful.

My review is at PopMatters:

Readers will find two Fergusons on display. Besides the conservative columnist who picks fights in periodicals in order to burnish his brand (or just to pick a fight) the serious if sometimes wrong-headed historian is also in attendance…