The WakeUp Call, John Micklethwait
The WakeUp Call, John Micklethwait
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The Wake-Up Call
Why the Pandemic Has Exposed the Weakness of the West, and How to Fix It

Author: John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge

Narrator: Kristin Scott Thomas

Unabridged: 4 hr 28 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 09/15/2020


Synopsis

""[An] executive summary of modern political history studded with sweeping assertions and telling anecdotes."" -- The New York Times Book Review""Thought-provoking."" -- Kirkus Reviews“A shot in the arm...powerful.” -- The Financial Times
""The Wake-Up Call, refreshingly concise and eminently readable, highlights how the modern crisis of governance compounded the challenges of the pandemic."" -- Bloomberg""The Wake-Up Call argues that Covid-19 has exposed not just one president's shortcomings but a much more profound degeneration of governance dating back long before 2016...You will read no more interesting book on the political consequences of the pandemic than this."" -- Niall Ferguson, author of Civilization: The West and the Rest 
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2020 (BLOOMBERG)An urgent and informed look at the challenges America and world governments will face in a post Covid-19 world.The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed that governments matter again, that competent leadership is the difference between living and dying. A few governments proved adept at handling the crisis while many others failed. Are Western governments healthy and strong enough to keep their citizens safe from another virulent virus—and protect their economies from collapse? Is global leadership passing from the United States to Asia—and particularly China? The Wake-Up Call addresses these urgent questions. Journalists and longtime collaborators John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge identify the problems Western leaders face, and outline a detailed plan to help them become more vigilant, better prepared, and responsive to disruptive future events. The problems that face us are enormous; as The Wake-Up Call makes clear, governments around the world must re-engineer the way they operate to successfully meet the challenges ahead. 

About John Micklethwait

John Micklethwait is the editor-in-chief of Bloomberg and was previously editor-in-chief at The Economist.

About Adrian Wooldridge

Adrian Wooldridge is the management editor and “Schumpeter” columnist of The Economist. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and All Souls College, Oxford, where he held a Prize Fellowship. He was formerly The Economist’s Washington bureau chief and “Lexington” columnist. He is the coauthor, with John Micklethwait, of five books—including The Witch Doctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus; A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Hidden Promise of Globalization; The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea; and The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America—and the author of Measuring the Mind: Education and Psychology in England c.1860-1990.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Morgan on January 31, 2021

Interesting and pragmatic look at how contemporary western approaches to government are failing under the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors compare the COVID responses and outcomes of the so-called ‘Asian Tiger’ governments (e.g. China and Singapore), to the concurrent actions of the US u......more

Goodreads review by Bill on December 09, 2020

Not a deep book, a quick read, more like a magazine article than a book. I would give it two and a half stars. Interesting enough, with lots of casual opinions (I admit, most of them I agreed with) that were stated without much nuance or background research. Conclusions of the author made sense, alt......more

Goodreads review by Drtaxsacto on October 18, 2020

I first came into contact with these authors when they wrote a superb book on globalization (A Future Perfect). They have an ability to take complex issues and present them in new ways. This book is no exception. In spite of my concerns discussed below it is well worth the read. The premise is that......more

Goodreads review by Lynn on February 02, 2021

Some Correct, Some Wrong There’s a lot of good ideas in here and some that I found alarmingly wrong. Since the wrong alarmed me, I’ll address that. I’m Norplant sure where the author would end up on the income spectrum but I suspect on the high end. I’m a teacher and what this author said about them......more

Goodreads review by Glynn on September 15, 2020

Expansive backgrounder and history primer, this book covers a lot of ground and the authors have managed to contextualise recent events in the broad sweep of history. No mean feat under present circumstances. Some good points and several home truths in there, but not so much in the way of practical,......more