The Wake-Up Call

An urgent and informed look at the challenges Britain and world governments will face in a post-Covid-19 world.

The Covid crisis has not just highlighted the failures of certain governments, it is accelerating a shift in the balance of power from West to East. After a decade where politics in the US and the UK has been consumed with inward-facing struggles, countries like South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, as well as China, have made extraordinary advances economically, technologically and politically.

In this beautifully crafted essay, Micklethwait and Wooldridge explain how we ended up in this mess and explore the possible routes out. If Western governments respond creatively to the crisis, they will have a chance of reversing decades of decline; if they dither and delay while Asia continues to improve, the prospect of a new Eastern-dominated world order will increase. The big question facing the world is whether the West can rise to the challenge as it has before.

“You will read no more interesting book on the political consequences of the pandemic than this.”

You will read no more interesting book on the political consequences of the pandemic than this

Professor Niall Ferguson
A masterful analysis of Western failure, and a clear program for the future Anne Applebaum
A devastating new book Daily Mail
Their diagnosis of the problem is spot on Spectator
Readable and fascinating Economist
A shot in the arm... powerful. Financial Times
'The Wake-Up Call' offers an executive summary of modern political history studded with sweeping assertions and telling anecdotes. New York Times
Excellent and convincing -- Jeremy Hunt Daily Telegraph
The Wake Up Call goes in for bold assertions, which is what makes it so readable...full marks to the authors... two of the sharpest minds around. -- Charles Powell Times Literary Supplement

John Micklethwait is editor-in-chief of Bloomber g and former editor-in-chief if the Economist; Adrian Wooldridge is the political editor of the Economist and author of its Bagehot column. They have written six previous books together: The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State; Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea; A Future Perfect: The Challenge and Promise of Globalization; The Witchdoctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus; The Right Nation: Why America is Different; and God is Back: How the Global Rise of Faith is Changing the World.

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