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.
| ISBN: | 9781841958309 |
| Publication date: | 28th September 2006 |
| Author: | Ronald Wright |
| Publisher: | Canongate an imprint of Canongate Books |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 211 pages |
| Series: | The Massey Lectures Series |
| Genres: |
Popular Science History and Archaeology |
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.
A Short History of Progress features in the following genres: Popular Science, History and Archaeology
A Short History of Progress is available in Paperback
A Short History of Progress was written by Ronald Wright and published by Canongate an imprint of Canongate Books
A Short History of Progress has 211 pages
Yes it is part of The Massey Lectures Series series
£9.89