2020 A Reckoning

Renowned sociologist Eric Klinenberg provides the ultimate overview of how different countries fared during the pandemic and why

The virus had the potential to kill, but the real threat to life came from us.

In this global overview of different countries' responses to the pandemic of 2020, we see that the key factors that determined success or failure were not to do with geography, preparedness or vaccines. They were social: how much we trust each other and our government; whether we value the collective or the individual; whose lives matter to us and who we're willing to leave in harm's way.

Through a deeply reported, character-driven account of seven lives - including a school principal, a bar manager, a transport worker and a political aide - in the global epicentre of the pandemic, New York, we see how different communities and sectors of society were affected by the decisions taken by governments and politicians. We see why some heeded the call for mask-wearing and social distancing while others rejected it, and how crucial factors such as race and age determined fates. Surrounding them is the panoramic overview: Klinenberg shows how leaders in London and Washington made the crisis so much more lethal than was necessary, while scientists, citizens and policy makers in Australia, Japan and Taiwan worked together to save lives, and how countries as various as South Korea, Germany and Brazil took their own particular paths.

This book is both mirror and roadmap: a reflection of who we are at this crucial moment in world history, and a set of principles for how we might approach the next catastrophe differently.