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Doom : the politics of catastrophe / by Ferguson, Niall,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Setting the great crisis of 2020 in broad historical perspective, Niall Ferguson challenges the conventional wisdom that our failure to cope better with disaster was solely a crisis of political leadership, as opposed to a more profound systemic problem. Disasters are by their very nature hard to predict. 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. 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. We have science on our side, after all. Yet the responses of a number of developed countries, including the United States, to a new pathogen from China were badly bungled. Why? The facile answer is to blame poor leadership. While populist leaders have certainly performed poorly in the face of the pandemic, more profound problems have been exposed by COVID-19. Only when we understand the central challenge posed by disaster in history can we see that this was also a failure of an administrative state and economic elites that had grown myopic over much longer than just a few years. Why were so many Cassandras for so long ignored? Why did only some countries learn the right lessons from SARS and MERS? Why do appeals to "the science" often turn out to be magical thinking? Drawing from multiple disciplines, including history, economics, public health, and network science, Doom is a global postmortem for a plague year. In books going back nearly twenty years, including Colossus, The Great Degeneration, and The Square and the Tower, Niall Ferguson has studied the pathologies that afflict modern America, from imperial hubris to bureaucratic sclerosis and online schism. Doom is the lesson of history that this country--indeed the West as a whole--urgently needs to learn--if we want to avoid the doom of irreversible decline"--
Subjects: COVID-19 (Disease); COVID-19 (Disease); Epidemics; Political leadership.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Empire of blue water : Captain Morgan's great pirate army, the epic battle for the Americas, and the catastrophe that ended the outlaw's bloody reign / by Talty, Stephen;
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subjects: Morgan, Henry, Sir, 1635?-1688.; Pirates;
© c2007., Crown Publishers,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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World War I: The "Great War". by Gabriel, Vejas,actor.; The Great Courses (Firm),dst; Kanopy (Firm),dst;
Vejas Gabriel LiuleviciusOriginally produced by The Great Courses in 2006.The opening lecture presents the main themes of the course, beginning with the concept of total war. Other themes include the role of ideology, the meanings ascribed to the war by different sides, and the war's legacy.Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subjects: Education films.; Social sciences.; Military history..; History, Modern.; Education.; Instructional films.;
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The infernal library : on dictators, the books they wrote, and other catastrophes of literacy / by Kalder, Daniel,1974-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Since the days of the Roman Empire dictators have written books. But in the twentieth-century despots enjoyed unprecedented print runs to (literally) captive audiences. The titans of the genre--Stalin, Mussolini, and Khomeini among them--produced theoretical works, spiritual manifestos, poetry, memoirs, and even the occasional romance novel and established a literary tradition of boundless tedium that continues to this day. How did the production of literature become central to the running of regimes? What do these books reveal about the dictatorial soul?
Subjects: Dictatorship; Dictators as authors; Revolutionary literature;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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How to survive history : how to outrun a Tyrannosaurus, escape Pompeii, get off the Titanic, and survive the rest of history's deadliest catastrophes / by Cassidy, Cody,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."History is the most dangerous place on earth. From dinosaurs the size of locomotives to meteors big enough to sterilize the planet, from famines to pandemics, from tornadoes to the Chicxulub asteroid, the odds of human survival are slim but not zero--at least, not if you know where to go and what to do. In each chapter of How to Survive History, Cody Cassidy explores how to survive one of history's greatest threats: getting eaten by dinosaurs, being destroyed by the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs, succumbing to the lava flows of Pompeii, being devoured by the Donner Party, drowning during the sinking of the Titanic, falling prey to the Black Death, and more. Using hindsight and modern science to estimate everything from how fast you'd need to run to outpace a T. rex to the advantages of different body types in surviving the Donner Party tragedy, Cassidy gives you a detailed battle plan for survival, helping you learn about the era at the same time. History may be the most dangerous place on earth, but that doesn't mean you can't visit. You can, and you should. And with a copy of How to Survive History in your back pocket, you just might make it out alive"--
Subjects: Trivia and miscellanea.; Disasters; History; Survival.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Russia trap : how our shadow war with Russia could spiral into nuclear catastrophe / by Beebe, George,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A former head of CIA's Russia analysis shows how Washington and Moscow may be headed toward nuclear annihilation. After years of unsuccessful post-Cold War efforts to forge a cooperative relationship, it is now clear that the U.S. and Russia have become competitors, not partners--no matter what some politicians would have the American public believe. And this competition is quickly spiraling into enmity thanks to new strategic weapons, shifts in world power, and unsettled regional conflicts. Meanwhile, the rules that kept the Cold War from getting hot no longer apply. The inherent advantages of cyber attackers over cyber defense are incentivizing aggression and fueling feelings of vulnerability. And the arms control regimes and deterrence strategies that once contained dangers are ironically stoking mistrust between the U.S. and Russia. Americans don't worry about nuclear war the way they did thirty years ago. But they should because the danger has become even greater today. Beebe's terrifying but essential new work allows us to face this reality--and, in doing so, to take steps to divert the world from this path."--Provided by publisher.
Subjects: Cyberterrorism; Nuclear warfare; Nuclear crisis control.; Geopolitics.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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BlackBerry [videorecording] / by Baruchel, Jay,1982-actor.; Donovan, Martin,1957-actor.; Elwes, Cary,1962-actor.; Howerton, Glenn,1976-actor.; Ironside, Michael,1950-actor.; Johnson, Matt,1985-screenwriter,film director.; Rubinek, Saul,1948-actor.; Silcoff, Sean,actor.; Sommer, Rich,1978-actor.; Elevation Pictures,film distributor.;
Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Matt Johnson, Rich Sommer, Saul Rubinek, Michael Ironside, Martin Donovan, Cary Elwes.The story of Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, the two men that charted the course of the spectacular rise and catastrophic demise of the world's first smartphone maker.Canadian Home Video Rating: 14A.Subtitled for the deaf and hard-of-hearing (SDH).DVD ; wide screen presentation ; Dolby Digital 5.1.
Subjects: Video recordings for the hearing impaired.; Comedy films.; Feature films.; Biographical films.; Historical films.; Balsillie, Jim, 1961-; Lazaridis, Mike, 1961-; BlackBerry Limited; Research in Motion (Firm); Businesspeople; BlackBerry (Smartphone); Smartphones;
For private home use only.
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Fun home [graphic novel] : a family tragicomic / by Bechdel, Alison,1960-author,illustrator.;
A memoir done in the form of a graphic novel by a cult favorite comic artist offers a darkly funny family portrait that details her relationship with her father--a funeral home director, high school English teacher, and closeted homosexual.
Subjects: Graphic novels.; Bechdel, Alison, 1960-; Cartoonists;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The library book / by Orlean, Susan,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-317).Orlean re-opens the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history and delivers a love letter to the institution of libraries themselves.
Subjects: True crime stories.; Los Angeles Public Library; Libraries; Library buildings; Library materials; Books; Libraries;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Children of anguish and anarchy / by Adeyemi, Tomi,author.;
When Zaelie is captured and taken away from her homeland, she must face her captor, King Baldyr, and find allies to stop the impending catastrophe threatening her people at the hands of the Skulls.014-018.Grades 10-12.
Subjects: Fantasy fiction.; Young adult fiction.; Novels.; Good and evil; Magic; Good and evil; Magic;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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