A groundbreaking new perspective on catastrophes throughout human history, with vital lessons for our future'This book upended my understanding of the ancient world' Zoe Schlanger, author of The Light Eaters'Lizzie Wade is an exceptional journalist and a master storyteller' Ed Yong, author of An Immense WorldThe history of humanity is one of devastating, once-in-a-thousand-year events: rising seas that make land uninhabitable, decades-long droughts, civilisational collapse, epidemics like the Black Death and the Spanish Flu that reduce a city's population by fifty percent.