Crisis: A Global History
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2025
Pages: 166
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2025
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Humans and crises have traveled together throughout our existence. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the iconic representations of the catastrophes that have always plagued our world--conquest, war, famine and death. We even see crises depicted in prehistoric cave drawings and stone etchings. With the advent of written language, chronicles of these events found homes on cuneiform, papyrus, paper and the Internet.
What have we learned from past crises? Why do we keep repeating the same mistakes? What makes us do this and how do we change course?
Crisis: A Global History provides an historical analysis of crises across the world and time through the author's framework of nine major crisis types-conflict, disease, economic, environmental, famine, natural, organizational/reputational, social justice and technological. Through historical investigative narrative and a crisis management lens, the book discusses what happened and how, planning and prevention efforts, the response and impact, and what went well or could have been done better.
From western European cave paintings dated to 19,500 BCE with markings that helped people evade starvation, the fall of the Aztec empire and disastrous Chinese famines to the COVID-19 pandemic, a mostly unknown solar storm that crashed global tech, and worldwide rise of political extremism and disinformation, humankind's story cannot be told without crisis.
Matt Charles is the former deputy spokesperson for the University of Virginia during and after the tragic Unite the Right rally in 2017, and many other crises. Prior to this position, he served the UVA Darden School of Business as director of media relations, helping the school earn a #1 ranking through his reputation management work. A frequent media spokesperson, crisis management/strategic communication professor and former New York City special investigator working sex and drug crimes involving children, he has provided training for the US Department of State, National Criminal Justice Command College and Drug Enforcement Administration, served on a working group for Washington, DC universities (Consortium 120) to combat gun violence, and has received Fulbright support. Professor Charles provides strategic counsel for institutions of higher education, government organizations, nonprofits, corporations, and small businesses and startups. He teaches, or has taught, for Georgetown University, the University of Virginia, American University, Northeastern University, the University of Maryland Global Campus, the University of Iowa, Rutgers University, the University of Florida, the University of Alabama and Purdue University.
Humans and crises have traveled together throughout our existence. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the iconic representations of the catastrophes that have always plagued our world--conquest, war, famine and death. We even see crises depicted in prehistoric cave drawings and stone etchings. With the advent of written language, chronicles of these events found homes on cuneiform, papyrus, paper and the Internet.
What have we learned from past crises? Why do we keep repeating the same mistakes? What makes us do this and how do we change course?
Crisis: A Global History provides an historical analysis of crises across the world and time through the author's framework of nine major crisis types-conflict, disease, economic, environmental, famine, natural, organizational/reputational, social justice and technological. Through historical investigative narrative and a crisis management lens, the book discusses what happened and how, planning and prevention efforts, the response and impact, and what went well or could have been done better.
From western European cave paintings dated to 19,500 BCE with markings that helped people evade starvation, the fall of the Aztec empire and disastrous Chinese famines to the COVID-19 pandemic, a mostly unknown solar storm that crashed global tech, and worldwide rise of political extremism and disinformation, humankind's story cannot be told without crisis.
Matt Charles is the former deputy spokesperson for the University of Virginia during and after the tragic Unite the Right rally in 2017, and many other crises. Prior to this position, he served the UVA Darden School of Business as director of media relations, helping the school earn a #1 ranking through his reputation management work. A frequent media spokesperson, crisis management/strategic communication professor and former New York City special investigator working sex and drug crimes involving children, he has provided training for the US Department of State, National Criminal Justice Command College and Drug Enforcement Administration, served on a working group for Washington, DC universities (Consortium 120) to combat gun violence, and has received Fulbright support. Professor Charles provides strategic counsel for institutions of higher education, government organizations, nonprofits, corporations, and small businesses and startups. He teaches, or has taught, for Georgetown University, the University of Virginia, American University, Northeastern University, the University of Maryland Global Campus, the University of Iowa, Rutgers University, the University of Florida, the University of Alabama and Purdue University.