A Short History of Progress

Have we learnt the lessons of the past or will we be next? This is the acclaimed, accesible and thought-provoking investigation into why modern civilisation is running out of time. Palaeolithic hunters who learnt how to kill two mammouths instead of one had made progess. 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. 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.