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Cover of Fluke by Brian Klaas

Fluke

  • 336 pages · about 6 hours
  • First published 2024
  • 5 editions

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1 About this book

PUBLISHER'S SUMMARY This “captivating illustration of the follies of trying to model and forecast the unpredictable world” (Financial Times) is both “empowering” (The New Statesman, UK) and “compelling” (New Scientist) as it challenges our most fundamental assumptions—by social scientist and Atlantic writer Brian Klaas.

If you could rewind your life to the very beginning and then press play, would everything turn out the same? Or could making an accidental phone call or missing an exit off the highway change not just your life, but history itself?

In Fluke, myth-shattering social scientist Brian Klaas takes a deep-dive into the phenomenon of random chance and the chaos it can sow, taking aim at most people’s neat and tidy version of reality. The book’s argument is that we willfully ignore a bewildering truth: but for a few small changes, our lives—and our societies—could be radically different.

Good for readers who want: popular science, science, and evolution.

  • Popular science
  • Social psychology
  • Science
  • Biological Evolution

2 About Brian Klaas

Born 1986

Brian Paul Klaas (born June 29, 1986) is an American political scientist, a contributing writer at The Atlantic, and a professor in global politics at University College London. He co-authored How to Rig an Election (2018) and authored Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us (2021) and Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters (2024). Klaas was named one of the 25 top thinkers globally for 2025 by Prospect magazine.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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