A Short History of Progress | Ronald Wright | An Outstanding, Eye-Opening Work

A Short History of Progress | Ronald Wright | A Short History of Progress

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A Short History of...

	A Short History of Progress Ronald Wright Da Capo Press, 2005 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 39 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

An Outstanding, Eye-Opening Work

This book steps up next to Ishmael as a book that causes an eye-opening and perhaps depressing reassessment of where we are the the world.

Ronald Wright has taken a comprehensive survey of archeological inforamtion and recorded history and created a cohesive explanation for the rise and fall of civilizations.

In short, it does not look good for us. Wright shows that we have shown a historical talent for self-destruction and that today's global civilization may be our last hurrah on the civilization train.

Previous civilizations that have outstripped their natural resources have collapsed, but there has always been a new civilization elsewhere to pick up the pieces. But, now that we have a global civilization a collapse would take down the whole world.

While I think this is an excellent book, and worth the five stars, it does miss on one point. There are no suggestions or prescriptions for how to address the problem. It seems that the problem Wright describes is created by the same forces that drive Adam Smith's invisible hand -- the quest of individuals to improve their position. While this individualism can drive economies to grow, Wright would argue that it can also drive civilizations to outstrip their resources -- "Surely MY SUV is not going to bring down civilization. Let someone else drive the Hybrid."

How do we change this behavior? The book does not have suggestions.

It is critical that the ideas on this book become part of the political debate in the world. If we continue to blindly ignore history's warnings, we are likely to see a collapse that would cut our 6-Billion population in half, or even lower.

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A Short History of Progress

The word 'progress' is often used to imply a positive step forward. In this brilliant book Wright argues that progress often leads to "traps" with disastrous consequences for humanity and the planet (one need only look to the recently released 'Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Report' to witness the negative impact we humans are having on the earth).

However, instead of whacking his readers across the shins with a litany of doom-and-gloom statistics, Wright calmly points us to past mistakes made by so-called 'civilized' peoples. The author provides his readers with the fascinating accounts of the Sumerians, Romans, Easter Islanders, and the Maya, peoples whose impact on the land was not only catastrophic for their environments, but also for themselves. That said, Wright's book is not entirely without hope, as evidently there were (and are) societies who lived in a symbiotic relationship with nature. Two examples are the Islamic civilization of Spain, and the Incas of Peru, both of which actually repaired eroded landscapes with terracing.

What I found most appealing about 'A Short History of Progress' was Wright's mastery of form-he is, without a doubt, a fantastic writer. Furthermore, not only is his book highly readable, but the author is obviously a tireless researcher. Surprisingly, when I neared the end of the book, instead of being overwhelmed by Wright's account, I found myself bolstered by the information.

As observed by Wright "The Myth of Progress has sometimes served us well-those of us seated at the best tables, anyway." Now is the time for humanity, as a collective group, to push our chairs away from our lush feast and prepare for our next meal-a meal that can be shared by all, and that doesn't do our planet such terrific damage.

As noted by Globe and Mail columnist Paul William Roberts: "I don't care if you have never read and will never read any kind of book at all, but you must read this one." I couldn't agree more.

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Cause for reflection

Ronald Wright's a Short History of Progress is one of those books that will change your world view. Accessible in size (just 136 pages - although don't forget to read the footnotes which are worth the price of admission alone) the book is a sobering and illuminative look at how humankind's quest for progress has too often ignored the carrying capacity of local ecosystems.

This pattern is repeated throughout history destroying societies and ecosystems along the way. But it is the rapid pace of technology and population over the past 300 years that has the potential to completely outstrip the ability of earth, and ecosystems everywhere, to support humankind.

Although reading the book is equivalent to realizing that you've been sleeping with a stick of dynamite under your bed. I think it is better to sleep unsoundly with knowledge than to sleep blissfully with ignorance.

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Cause for reflection

Ronald Wright's a Short History of Progress is one of those books that will change your world view. Accessible in size (just 136 pages - although don't forget to read the footnotes which are worth the price of admission alone) the book is a sobering and illuminative look at how humankind's quest for progress has too often ignored the carrying capacity of local ecosystems.

This pattern is repeated throughout history destroying societies and ecosystems along the way. But it is the rapid pace of technology and population over the past 300 years that has the potential to completely outstrip the ability of earth. and ecosystems everywhere, to support humankind.

Although reading the book is equivalent to realizing that you've been sleeping with a stick of dynamite under your bed. I think it is better to sleep unsoundly with knowledge than to sleep blissfully with ignorance.

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Short and sweet ... but

I read Wright's "A short history of progress", and listened to his Messy lecture series (which is a recitative of the book, without the footnotes).

To his credit, Wright is meticuloius and succinct in his presentation, no words needed or wasted, and the book is exactly that. And, he is the first Canadian academic I am aware to recognise that the pre-Columbian American Indians weren't the peace-monging and pipe-dream chasing conservationists that many self-made authorities assume to-day(*).

There are, however, two questions on "A short history" which really bother me.

1) Wright openly attacked Jared Diamond's views in "Guns Germs and Steel", and yet wrote a book, that is effectively a subset of Jared Diamond's "Collapse" (and "Collapse" was published before "A short history"). Many books have touched on the issues with Easter Island, the Mayans, and other ancient civilisations, but the focus have always been different. Why is there such coincidence in timing and content?

2) Wright offered the "only" salvation for the human race is to "give the power back to the people". I find this a bit simplestic end to all the wonderful information. "Power to the people" is exactly the reason we eat fast food and drive SUVs.

I think Wright's book is sufficient to illustrate the point on our civilisation and possible future, but Diamond's is much more comprehensive, on the range of discussion, the depth of personal experience and the trustworthiness of scientific evidence.

There is an important redeeming factor from Wright's book. I discovered I have Neanderthal blood!

Whilst Wright's book is by no means a poor read (in fact, far from it), I doubt those who had previously read about civilisation collapse would learn much from it.

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(*) - This is speaking from personal experience with a number of aquaintainces. Such views on the American Indian people are simplistic, contrary to human nature, and at the very least chauvanistic.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, page 7, 8

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