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This is a typical Niall Ferguson book. A grand tome of the history, politics, philosophy, economics, mathematics, science and sociology of catastrophes. Every time Dr Ferguson sets out to write a book on a specific topic, the first few pages make it abundantly clear that he intends his work to be the definitive epic, as he has done with 13 other books. This book is no different.
For a historian, the author comes across as a great polymath. The book encompasses a stupendous range of subjects to articulate the history of a wide swathe of catastrophes from the destruction of
