Some years-1789, 1929, 1989-change the world suddenly. Or do they? In 2020, a pandemic converged with an economic collapse, inequalities exploded, and institutions weakened. Yet these crises sprang not from new risks but from known dangers. The world-like many patients-met 2020 with a host of preexisting conditions, which together tilted the odds toward disaster. Perhaps 2020 wasn't the year the world changed; perhaps it was simply the moment the world finally understood its deadly diagnosis.In The Long Year, some of the world's most incisive thinkers excavate 2020's buried crises, revealing how they must be confronted in order to achieve a more equal future. Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor calls for the defunding of police and the refunding of communities; Keisha Blain demonstrates why the battle against racism must be global; and Adam Tooze reveals that COVID-19 hit hardest where inequality was already greatest and welfare states weakest. Yarimar Bonilla, Xiaowei Wang, Simon Balto, Marcia Chatelain, Gautam Bhan, Ananya Roy, and others offer insights from the factory farms of China to the elite resorts of France, the meatpacking plants of the Midwest to the overcrowded hospitals of India.The definitive guide to these ongoing catastrophes, The Long Year shows that only by exposing the roots and ramifications of 2020 can another such breakdown be prevented. It is made possible through institutional partnerships with Public Books and the Social Science Research Council.

Acknowledgments, by Caitlin ZaloomIntroduction: Preexisting Conditions, by Thomas J. SugruePart I: Diagnosing the CrisesPandemics as History, by Andy HorowitzIt's the Geography, Stupid! Planetary Urbanization Revealed, by Éric Charmes and Max RousseauGlobal Inequality and the Corona Shock, by Adam ToozeThe Job of Critical Thinking Now, by Joan Wallach ScottPart II: Essential Work "The Supply Chain Must Continue", by Andrew LakoffThe Enduring Disposability of Latinx Workers, by Natalia MolinaFast Food, Precarious Workers, by Marcia ChatelainMothers, Mental Health, and the Pandemic, by Michelle CeraWorking in China in the COVID-19 Era, by Gilles Guiheux, Renyou Hou, Manon Laurent, Jun Li, Anne-Valérie Ruinet, and Ye GuoIndia in COVID-19: A Tragedy Foretold, by Marine Al Dahdah, Mathieu Ferry, Isabelle Guérin, and Govindan VenkatasubramanianPandemic Security and Insecurity in the Gulf, by Neha VoraHidden Vulnerability and Inequality: The COVID-19 Pandemic in Singapore, by Sulfikar AmirAddressing the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Gender Inequality and Gender-Based Violence in South Africa, by Sherihan RadiPart III: Policing and ProtestCivil Rights International: The Fight Against Racism Has Always Been Global, by Keisha N. BlainRage and Uprising, by Mustafa DikeçDefund the Police and Refund the Communities, by Keeanga-Yamahtta TaylorPolicing's History Argues Against Reform, by Simon BaltoCan I Get a Witness?, by Jeffrey Aaron SnyderAs American as Child Separation, by Rachel NolanProtests Against Police Brutality Go Global, by David SchmidtPart IV: Viral BiopoliticsTo Heal the Body, Heal the Body Politic, by Julie LivingstonAmerican Eldercide, by Margaret Morganroth GulletteThe World Is a Factory Farm, by Xiaowei WangListen to the Birds, by Priscilla WaldRisk for "Us" or for "Them"? The Comparative Politics of Diversity and Responses to AIDS and COVID-19, by Evan LiebermanThink Like a Virus, by Warwick AndersonPart V: Pandemic LivesFor the Love of Strangers, by Julia FoulkesWhere Is She?, by Soledad Álvarez VelascoGrief Circling, by Sophie LewisIn China, Pandemic Diaries Unite and Divide a Nation, by Guobin YangPart VI: Private Crises in Public SpacesThe Violence of Urban Vacancy, by Sophie GonickThe Limits of Telecommuting, by Margaret O'MaraA Quiet Disaster: Mexico City, Mexico, by Alfonso FierroHealth Self-Defense in a São Paulo Favela, by Erick CorrêaEmergency Urbanism, by Ananya RoyA Crisis Too Big to Waste: What Comes After Private Housing Fails?, by Gianpaolo Baiocchi and H. Jacob CarlsonPart VII: The Failure of the StateCOVID Blindness, by Quentin RavelliFive Lessons for Democracy from the COVID-19 Pandemic, by Jean-Paul Gagnon, Rikki J. Dean, Afsoun Afsahi, Emily Beausoleil, and Selen A. ErcanCan Democracies Handle Systemic Risks?, by Miguel CentenoThe Vulnerable Foundations of India's Urbanism, by Gautam BhanPandemics in the Post-Grid Imaginary, by Joanne Randa NuchoPandemic Déjà Vu, by Yarimar BonillaCOVID-19 in a Border Nation, by Jacob A. C. RemesPart VIII: Alternative FuturesAre We in Denial About Denial?, by Rodrigo NunesCan the Crowd Speak?, by Warren BreckmanThe Pandemic's Brief Disaster Utopia, by Daniel F. Lorenz and Cordula DittmerBuilding a Society the Values Care, by Kathryn CaiRebuilding Solidarity in a Broken World, by Eric KlinenbergPart IX: Further ReadingPandemic Syllabus, by David S. Barnes, Merlin Chowkwanyun, and Kavita SivaramakrishnanList of ContributorsSource CreditsIndex