5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding and insightful

N. · 30 April 2024

Very interesting account of recent and 20th century history through the lens of a deep understanding of politics and economics. Quite densely written but not loaded with jargon. Probably best if you have an existing knowledge base of the chronology. Gave me a better understanding of events I'd lived through. Not cheerful but if you want a compelling explanation of where we are today and why then you should read this book. It's been updated to include the Ukraine war.

3.0 out of 5 stars A genuine tour de force, but perhaps too ambitious and ultimately a bit disappointing.

G.O.A. · 25 April 2022

I was really looking forward to reading this book, in part because I always enjoyed listening to Helen Thompson on the Talking Politics podcast, and in part because of the reviews I’d seen. Maybe my expectations were too high. Unfortunately though, I was a bit disappointed.Before explaining why, a word about the narration. Having thought carefully about to express my view here, I concluded the best approach was to be direct. It was simply awful and I fear this may have contributed materially to my enjoyment of the book. I’ve just started ‘There’s nothing for you here’, written and narrated by Fiona Hill. If I was in any doubt about Kitty Kelly’s reading of Disorder (and inclined to be generous) those doubts disappeared after just five minutes listening to Fiona Hill use intonation, pause and emphasis to bring her text to life. Kitty Kelly simply didn’t do that. Moreover, I doubt she was even close to understanding what she was reading and it showed.As for the book, it’s a genuine tour de force; an impressive and well researched catalogue and chronology of events, often recorded at quite a granular level. Having studied economics in the early 70’s, which included a postgraduate degree in international economics, and having worked in the investment management industry ever since, I enjoyed listening to the narrative and reflecting on how I experienced the events described at the time.However, from my perspective, there wasn’t much analysis of events and rarely were opinions expressed. Not only did this make the story being told a bit bland, but more importantly it made it hard to deduce what lessons might be learnt. Are we discussing policy mistakes, for example, or well intended polices that just happened not to work for some reason or, more prosaically, the randomness that inevitably follows from decision making under conditions of complexity and, at times, radical uncertainty? It wasn’t ever made clear.That said, I felt that at times Thompson was trying too hard to convince the reader that the persistent fault lines in the global order she describes have, to a large extent, been the result of the shifting geopolitics of energy, on the one hand, and of the unregulated Eurodollar market on the other. For me, this emphasis oversimplified events and, once again, made it harder to understand what lessons might be learned from history and what might be done next.There is much interesting content in the book. It’s just not that well marshalled. It’s not clear how it might all fit together. For example, I enjoyed the frequent references to ‘democratic excess’, on the one hand, and ‘aristocratic excess’ on the other, but having read the book I’m non the wiser how a middle ground might be struck, let alone how we might get there.The conclusion of the book seems to be that the liberal democracies face a major crisis a long time in the making. They are divided and have complex challenges to navigate, including climate change, but it’s not at all clear how democratic mandates can be secured to enable a way forward. The world is complex and it’s becoming more so.It‘s hard to disagree with this, but it might have been helpful if Thompson had shared less granular detail, but been clearer about the diagnosis of the underlying problems being faced by liberal democracies (not just the symptoms) and been able to suggest some possible solutions.The book is interesting, but might be hard going for anyone not familiar with economics in particular, especially if consuming the audio book. And don’t expect any clear judgements about historic policies or events or any proposed solutions.Just my perspective, for what it’s worth.

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for understanding the interaction amongst energy, economics and politics

A.C. · 27 January 2023

This is a detailed and thoughtful account of key structural factors in explaining the world we live in now, emphasising the role of energy. It does not suggest that other factors are not in play but these powerful forces unquestionably set the context for geo, supra national and national politics since WW2. The sheer mass of evidence can be challenging to absorb for the non specialist but is worth the effort.That so many tensions today can be traced back to interacting historical disjunctures shows that a complex rather than a simple account is essential. Consequently, simple models of the future and political solutions are doomed to failure. For anyone who is genuinely interested in grasping some of the complexity this is the book to read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Unsentimental history

A.C. · 13 June 2022

History is always difficult and writing new history especially so. Helen Thompson deals with this by analysing the fault lines, especially in democratic societies, that underly the present geopolitical turmoil. It concerns facts and causes without any sentiment applied on her part. In the age of gush, the age of hyperbole, this is very sobering - and illuminating. I thought of Thucydides, and there could be no greater compliment in a way. The ideas are pretty clearly expressed, without achieving crystal clarity - a bit like Thucydides too.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent.

B. · 6 August 2024

Buy it

5.0 out of 5 stars Somewhere between holistic and totalising

P.M. · 9 March 2022

Many writers can write about oil and gas, many can write about economics and many can write about democracy. Helen Thompson has one of the best understandings of the intermeshing equilibria between all three. A view from 10,000 feet and all the more compelling for it, she describes how resource dependency drives economic decision making, expertly sketches the effect on monetary policy (this part I had to read very slowly!) and contextualises the Brexit/Trump/decline of social democratic parties very well. A wonderful read

Bueno

j.c. · 22 March 2025

Bien

Lange Sätze, keine Frage...

R. · 4 September 2022

... und wenn das Buch nicht so gut wäre 3,5 Sterne.Aber dieses Buch ist richtig gut.Man kann vieles über das Buch sagen, z.B. es geht teils hinaus überThe Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World by Daniel Yergin, welches exzellent ist.Man kann vieles sagen. Aber ich sage wenig. Anders als Mrs. Thompson ;-)

interacting and full of critical perspectives

R. · 5 March 2023

Particolarly appreciated in the sections that relates oil with monetary and political consequences. Holistic view over dynamics let understanding historical facts with different angle. I strongly recommend reading to better understand actual status of things …

Brilliant content but a slog to read

j.b. · 17 February 2023

The material covered is brilliant and insightful, but the writing itself is hard work to read through - best tackled by non-academics like me in short bursts rather than extended study - I tried the audiobook version but frankly that was too hard to follow and turned into a bit of a drone - at least with the book versions I can dip and delve into it and read in my own head voice.

A thought provoking book…

J.A.F. · 21 August 2023

… that does an admirable job of connecting the dots between energy and financial markets, and the political and geopolitical challenges the world has been facing.The work is ambitious in scope and the author spared no effort digging into details to support her arguments. The result is a set of novel insights on a number of historical events over the past few decades.My only (small) criticism is that, in her attempt to explain a number of policy decisions, she perhaps attributes an excess of rationality to the processes. It is easy to rationalise after the fact but in reality practitioners are subject to biases and often have to act with only a small fraction of the available information. And, sadly, far too few of them will have read books like this…