Disorder, Helen Thompson
Disorder, Helen Thompson
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Disorder
Hard Times in the 21st Century

Author: Helen Thompson

Narrator: Kitty Kelly

Unabridged: 11 hr 39 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/24/2022


Synopsis

Getting to grips with the overlapping geopolitical, economic, and political crises faced by Western democratic societies in the 2020s.

The twenty-first century has brought a powerful tide of geopolitical, economic, and democratic shocks. Their fallout has led central banks to create over $25 trillion of new money, brought about a new age of geopolitical competition, destabilized the Middle East, ruptured the European Union, and exposed old
political fault lines in the United States.

Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century is a long history of this present political moment. It recounts three histories—one about geopolitics, one about the world economy, and one about western democracies—and explains how in the years of political disorder prior to the pandemic the disruption
in each became one big story. It shows how much of this turbulence originated in problems generated by fossil-fuel energies, and it explains why, as the green transition takes place, the longstanding predicaments energy invariably shapes will remain in place.

About Helen Thompson

Helen Thompson is professor of political economy at Cambridge University. She is the author of Oil and the Western Economic Crisis; China and the Mortgaging of America; and Might, Right, Prosperity and Consent: Representative Democracy and the International Economy. Since 2015, Helen has been a regular contributor to the podcast Talking Politics and has written articles for the London Review of Books, the New York Times, and the Financial Times.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jim

Like others, I became aware of Helen Thompson’s astounding breadth of knowledge and insight about international political economy through her contributions to the long-running podcast ‘Talking Politics’, which has now sadly ended after six years. ‘Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century’ reflects no......more

Goodreads review by Andrew

Helen Thompson offers a thought provoking examination of how political democracies and the world in general have been buffetted by a series of systemic shocks creating near intractable dilemmas. The book covers a great deal of ground. The first section emphasises the role that oil consumption has ha......more

Goodreads review by Graeme

I always try to give books a fair shake, but sometimes, it’s just not meant to be, and unfortunately, this was one of those times. I started it with enthusiasm (yes, I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to socio-political analyses), but ended up waving the white flag before reaching the end. Let’s talk......more

Goodreads review by Miska

I know Helen Thompson from one of my favourite podcasts, Talking Politics (which sadly has ended recently). She’s an extremely knowledgeable scholar so it was no question I would read her book as soon as it comes out. She has managed to see through all the complexities of 21st century global politics......more