This book is about the largest or simply terrible disasters that have ever befallen humanity. Epidemics and natural disasters, wars and accidents with enviable regularity have destroyed and are destroying, killing and killing, threatening the very existence of humanity, or at least at least a significant part of it. Surprisingly, a wide variety of misfortunes and misfortunes reveal frighteningly similar characteristics... As a result, the five chapters that the authors combined into the book, in fact, tell the story of the actual confrontation between man and the world around him. “Nature versus Man” – about natural disasters and epidemics; “Technology versus Man” – about man-made disasters and accidents; “Money against people” – about socio-economic disasters, wars and crises; “Man against Man” is about terrorism and the fatal mistakes of political leaders, which cost countries and peoples extremely dearly. The fifth chapter – “Disasters that never happened” – is perhaps the darkest; it gives possible scenarios for the apocalypse - from natural to military and technological. Man is ready again and again to frighten himself with pictures of the coming end of the world, while doing nothing to prevent or at least PREPARE for potential disasters that have happened before and are now taking us by surprise. That is, humanity does not learn any lessons from what happened, and disasters are repeated again and again, with more and more terrible consequences. Maybe at least this book will serve as a warning?..