Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk

What a book. I completely misjudged what this would be about — from my far-too-quick first glance, I assumed that it would be a more anecdotal set of accounts of risky ventures throughout history. Instead, this was a dense, extraordinarily well-researched and at times technical account of how humans have dealt with risk from ancient times to the present day, mostly focused on finance and economics.

Bernstein, himself an impressive financial consultant, shows not only a mastery of historical and contemporary figures in risk science, but demonstrates an ability to put their great egos in check. I’m glad I was able to, in prior readings, learn a bit more about nonlinear science, because I wouldn’t have grasped the concepts towards the end of this book as well without it. This book, although not the longest by page count, is a serious investment of time. To truly respect its content, you will be reading pages a few times before moving on, and it will take a bit longer than expected. But it is well worth it.