Morbid Symptoms: An Anatomy of a World in Crisis
A health check on our corrupt and broken political system by one of our finest historians

The deadly coronavirus spread across societies already riddled with political ills: rampant xenophobia and corruption, privatisation run amok, Brexiteer vainglory of 'a global Britain', a Euroland dominated by self-proclaimed nasty parties, and in America, the unspeakable Trump. As the acclaimed historian Donald Sassoon observes in this blistering polemic, there were morbid symptoms galore.

Sassoon paints an unforgettable picture of our galloping descent into political barbarism, mixing blunt exposé and classical references with an astonishing array of data. Why does the United States proportionately have more civilians owning guns than Yemen, where there is a war on? Why did the UK enter the pandemic with fewer doctors than any EU country except Poland and Romania?

In Morbid Symptoms he refuses to abandon what Antonio Gramsci termed the optimism of the will, instead recalling a line from Machiavelli's Istorie fiorentine: 'do not impute past disorders to the nature of the men, but to the times, which, being changed, give reasonable ground to hope that, with better government, our city will have better fortune in the future'.
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Morbid Symptoms: An Anatomy of a World in Crisis
A health check on our corrupt and broken political system by one of our finest historians

The deadly coronavirus spread across societies already riddled with political ills: rampant xenophobia and corruption, privatisation run amok, Brexiteer vainglory of 'a global Britain', a Euroland dominated by self-proclaimed nasty parties, and in America, the unspeakable Trump. As the acclaimed historian Donald Sassoon observes in this blistering polemic, there were morbid symptoms galore.

Sassoon paints an unforgettable picture of our galloping descent into political barbarism, mixing blunt exposé and classical references with an astonishing array of data. Why does the United States proportionately have more civilians owning guns than Yemen, where there is a war on? Why did the UK enter the pandemic with fewer doctors than any EU country except Poland and Romania?

In Morbid Symptoms he refuses to abandon what Antonio Gramsci termed the optimism of the will, instead recalling a line from Machiavelli's Istorie fiorentine: 'do not impute past disorders to the nature of the men, but to the times, which, being changed, give reasonable ground to hope that, with better government, our city will have better fortune in the future'.
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Morbid Symptoms: An Anatomy of a World in Crisis

Morbid Symptoms: An Anatomy of a World in Crisis

by Donald Sassoon
Morbid Symptoms: An Anatomy of a World in Crisis

Morbid Symptoms: An Anatomy of a World in Crisis

by Donald Sassoon

Hardcover

$34.95 
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Overview

A health check on our corrupt and broken political system by one of our finest historians

The deadly coronavirus spread across societies already riddled with political ills: rampant xenophobia and corruption, privatisation run amok, Brexiteer vainglory of 'a global Britain', a Euroland dominated by self-proclaimed nasty parties, and in America, the unspeakable Trump. As the acclaimed historian Donald Sassoon observes in this blistering polemic, there were morbid symptoms galore.

Sassoon paints an unforgettable picture of our galloping descent into political barbarism, mixing blunt exposé and classical references with an astonishing array of data. Why does the United States proportionately have more civilians owning guns than Yemen, where there is a war on? Why did the UK enter the pandemic with fewer doctors than any EU country except Poland and Romania?

In Morbid Symptoms he refuses to abandon what Antonio Gramsci termed the optimism of the will, instead recalling a line from Machiavelli's Istorie fiorentine: 'do not impute past disorders to the nature of the men, but to the times, which, being changed, give reasonable ground to hope that, with better government, our city will have better fortune in the future'.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781839761454
Publisher: Verso Books
Publication date: 03/02/2021
Pages: 304
Product dimensions: 6.28(w) x 9.49(h) x 0.99(d)

About the Author

Donald Sassoon is Emeritus Professor of Comparative European History at Queen Mary, University of London, and the acclaimed author of The Anxious Triumph, The Culture of the Europeans, One Hundred Years of Socialism and Mona Lisa, all widely translated.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables ix

Acknowledgements xi

Preface xiii

1 The Old Is Dying 1

2 The Rise of Xenophobia 9

3 The Waning of Welfare 55

4 The Collapse of Established Parties 81

5 The American Hegemon 161

6 European Narratives 183

7 Europe Imploding? 203

8 Lost Hopes? 229

Notes 241

Index of Names 277

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