A Short History Of Progress

By: Ronald Wright

Write A Review

Paperback | 2 May 2005 | Edition Number 1

Sorry, we are not able to source the book you are looking for right now.

We did a search for other books with a similar title, however there were no matches. You can try selecting from a similar category, click on the author's name, or use the search box above to find your book.

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.

About the Author

Ronald Wright is a prize-winning novelist, historian, and essayist, published in ten languages. His nonfiction includes the number-one bestseller Stolen Continents, winner of the Gordon Montador Award and chosen as a book of the year by the Independent and the Sunday Times. His first novel, A Scientific Romance, won the 1997 David Higham Prize for Fiction and was chosen a book of the year by the Globe and Mail, The Sunday Times and the New York Times.

Industry Reviews

"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

"Unfailingly provocative and scarily persuasive." - Scotsman

"I was thoroughly shaken up by Ronald Wright's A Short History of Progress, a brilliant analysis of everything humanity has done to ruin itself down the ages." - Jan Morris, Independent

"Wise, timely and brilliant." - Globe and Mail

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

Orders over $79.00 qualify for free shipping.

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.