A Short History of Progress

Palaeolithic hunters who learnt how to kill two mammoths instead of one had made progress. Those who learnt how to kill 200 by driving a whole herd over a cliff had made too much.

Many of the great ruins that grace the deserts and jungles of the earth are monuments to progress traps, the headstones of civilisations which fell victim to their own success. The twentieth-century´s runaway growth has placed a murderous burden on the planet.

A Short History of Progress argues that this modern predicament is as old as civilisation. Only by understanding the patterns of progress and disaster that humanity has repeated since the Stone Age can we recognise the inherent dangers, and, with luck, and wisdom, shape its outcome.


"The author sifts the findings of archaeology and anthropology with thoughtful grace to build a potent argument." (Guardian)

"A compelling work of distilled wisdom." (The Times)

"Rarely have I read a book that is so gripping, so immediate and so important to our times. Jared Diamond will be jealous." (Robyn Williams)

"Ronald Wright is both trained academic and an acclaimed novelist and he has used these skills to page-turning effect in this work of non-fiction." (Morning Star)