Things Are Never So Bad That They Can't Get Worse
Inside the Collapse of Venezuela
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- $329.00
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- $329.00
Descripción editorial
“Richly reported…a thorough and important history.” — Tim Padgett, The New York Times
The award-winning, richly nuanced account of the collapse of Venezuela and what it could mean for the rest of the world.
Venezuela has been mired in crisis for over a decade—characterized by economic collapse, political polarization, mass emigration, and widespread hardship—even as the country sits atop some of the world’s largest oil reserves. In Things Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse, William Neuman provides a vivid, granular chronicle of that descent. Drawing on his experience as The New York Times Andes Region Bureau Chief and years of reporting from Caracas, Neuman explores the interplay of charismatic populism, economic mismanagement, corruption, and the international forces that have shaped Venezuela’s fate.
The book traces how once-abundant oil wealth became a source of distortion rather than development, how political power concentrated around Hugo Chávez and later Nicolás Maduro, and how everyday Venezuelans endured rolling blackouts, hyperinflation, shortages of food and medicine, and threats to personal safety. Neuman blends history, journalism, and personal narrative into a clear-eyed account of how a petro-rich nation imploded, displacing millions and disrupting the region.
Winner of Best Books of the Year from Foreign Affairs, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Overseas Press Club of America, the book’s historical context provides readers indispensable insight into how decades of policy choices, institutional breakdown, and external pressures set the stage for the crises of today. Rather than offering simple answers, Things Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse equips readers with the historical grounding needed to understand both Venezuela’s past and the complexities shaping its future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Neuman debuts with a heartbreaking and deeply reported account of the ongoing crisis in Venezuela. Depicting the country's downward spiral since 2014—driven by a collapse in oil prices, U.S. sanctions, and hyperinflation—from the perspectives of political leaders and ordinary citizens, Neuman notes that one in six Venezuelans has fled the country during the crisis, an exodus "second only to the flight from Syria, which was in the midst of a civil war." He begins the narrative with a vivid description of the 2019 blackouts that left the entire country in the dark, pinning the blame on decades of neglect by President Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro. Neuman then explains how Chávez, who came to power in 1999 and died in 2013, created a cult of personality by stoking political polarization and invoking the country's revolutionary past while funneling oil revenues into a national "slush fund" for development projects and borrowing heavily from foreign banks. Neuman excels at humanizing the suffering of ordinary Venezuelans who lack access to basic food, medicine, or shelter, and incisively analyzes how the country's fractured and ineffective opposition has allowed Maduro to retain control. Through lyrical prose, in-depth interviews, and lucid discussions of political and economic matters, Neuman makes the scale of Venezuela's tragedy clear. Readers will be riveted and appalled.
