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.
- 224 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
A Short History Of Progress
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INDEX
- acceleration of change, 1, 2
- Adam and Eve, 1, 2n48, 3n36
- advertising, 1n68
- Africa
- civilization limited to north, 1
- origin of humans, 1, 2n25
- age of the earth, 1, 2n14, 3n15
- agriculture and civilization, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5n4
- see also farming
- Akkadian Empire, 1
- Alley, Richard, 1
- American Revolution, 1
- Anglo-Saxons, 1
- animals
- domestication, 1, 2n32
- hunting to extinction, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5n18, 6n21
- Antioch, 1
- apes
- beginnings of culture, 1
- relation to humans, 1, 2, 3
- apocalyptic novels, 1
- Arabic numerals, 1, 2n44
- archaeology, 1, 2
- arms race, 1, 2n3
- art of early humans, 1, 2, 3, 4n14
- Aswan High Dam, 1n2
- As You Like It (Shakespeare), 1
- atomic bomb, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5n7
- Auden, W. H., 1
- Augustus, 1
- Australia, 1, 2n27, 3n49
- Aztecs
- before Spaniards, 1, 2n10
- farming, 1n52
- Spanish conquests, 1, 2n15
- Babylonians, 1n44
- Ball, John, 1n48
- basic needs, 1
- “Bel and the Dragon,” 1n36
- beliefs
- change with rise of science, 1, 2, 3n5
- traditional, 1...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- I Gauguin’s Questions
- II The Great Experiment
- III Fools’ Paradise
- IV Pyramid Schemes
- V The Rebellion of the Tools
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
- Acknowledgments
- Also by Ronald Wright
- About the Author
- Copyright Page
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Yes, you can access A Short History Of Progress by Ronald Wright in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Biological Sciences & Science General. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.