by Sean Kelly, Managing Editor, Classical Wisdom
It’s easy these days to feel overwhelmed by a sense of catastrophe. Whether it’s the on-going pandemic, worries about floods, wildfires and other natural disasters, or just the normal concerns of our daily lives… the world seems filled with doom.
It is in these trying times that we should turn to the ancients.
This is because such concerns are nothing new: People, centuries and millennia ago, confronted catastrophes that resonate with us still today. The Iliad starts with a plague. So does Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, another of the most celebrated works of ancient literature… and of course Thucydides’ description of the plague of Athens during the Peloponnesian War, with its subsequent moral decay, carries a heavy, but important message to those willing to learn it.
Likewise there were natural disasters from Pompeii to the Theran Eruption and the famous flood of ancient myths; pivotal moments in our collective history.
The ancients confronted disasters like these and emerged the other side with wisdom to share with us all.
But where can we find this knowledge? How can we glean these essential lessons in a time when it’s so necessary?
Fortunately for us, one of the most celebrated historians active today is on the case.
Niall Ferguson, ‘the most brilliant British historian of his generation’, takes us on a journey through these disasters and what we can learn from them in his most recent book Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe.
It is in these trying times that we should turn to the ancients.
This is because such concerns are nothing new: People, centuries and millennia ago, confronted catastrophes that resonate with us still today. The Iliad starts with a plague. So does Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, another of the most celebrated works of ancient literature… and of course Thucydides’ description of the plague of Athens during the Peloponnesian War, with its subsequent moral decay, carries a heavy, but important message to those willing to learn it.
Likewise there were natural disasters from Pompeii to the Theran Eruption and the famous flood of ancient myths; pivotal moments in our collective history.
The ancients confronted disasters like these and emerged the other side with wisdom to share with us all.
But where can we find this knowledge? How can we glean these essential lessons in a time when it’s so necessary?
Fortunately for us, one of the most celebrated historians active today is on the case.
Niall Ferguson, ‘the most brilliant British historian of his generation’, takes us on a journey through these disasters and what we can learn from them in his most recent book Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe.
Niall Ferguson applies the thoroughness and attention to detail he’s known for in a book that will have a resonance with anyone who has looked at the problems assailing the world and wondered to themselves “How am I meant to deal with this?”
Recently published, Doom has been described as, “Insightful, productively provocative and downright brilliant.” by none other than the New York Times Book Review.
When disaster hits, we should be better prepared than the Romans when Vesuvius erupted… but are we? And if we aren’t, what do we need to learn?
Make sure to read Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe for this important lesson.
Get your own copy HERE
But wait! There’s more…
You can see Niall Ferguson LIVE this August at Classical Wisdom’s Symposium 2021: The End of Empires and the Fall of Nations.
A senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, an award-making filmmaker, as well as a New York Times best selling author of numerous books, including The Square and the Tower and The Ascent of Money, Niall’s speech on The Politics of Catastrophe in the Ancient and Modern Worlds is not to be missed.
This is an opportunity of a lifetime to hear one of the world’s most celebrated intellectuals discuss the greatest issues facing our world today…
Not only that, but Niall will be joining our keynote panel discussion on Saturday night with famed philosopher Angie Hobbs and Harvard Professor of classics, James Hankins. They will address whether States and Empires Die Differently. And what can their deaths teach us today?
Reserve your tickets HERE!
(Please note – if you can’t afford the tickets, feel free to email us at [email protected] and we will help you out. We think this topic is too important to preclude anyone.)