A Short History of Progress
Encyclopedia
A Short History of Progress is a non-fiction book and lecture series by Ronald Wright
about societal collapse
. The lectures were delivered as a series of five speeches, each taking place in different cities across Canada as part of the 2004 Massey Lectures
which was broadcast on the CBC Radio
program, Ideas
. The book version was published by House of Anansi Press
and released at the same time as the lectures. The book spent more than a year on Canadian bestseller lists, won the Canadian Book Association's Libris Award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and was nominated for the British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction
. It has since been reprinted in a hardcover format with illustrations.
Wright, an author of fiction and non-fiction works, uses the fallen civilizations of Easter Island
, Sumer
, Rome
, and Maya
, as well as examples from the Stone Age, to see what conditions led to the downfall of society. He examines the meaning of progress
and its implications for civilizations — past and present — arguing that the twentieth century was a time of runaway growth in human population
, consumption
, and technology
that has now placed an unsustainable
burden on all natural systems
.
and his 1998 novel A Scientific Romance, about a museum curator who travels into the future and investigates the fate of the human race, won the David Higham Prize for Fiction
for first-time novelists. Wright traces the origins of the ideas behind A Short History of Progress to the material he studied while writing A Scientific Romance and his 2000 essay for The Globe and Mail
titled "Civilization is a Pyramid Scheme" about the fall of the ninth-century Mayan civilization.
's painting of the same name
the questions are: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? Wright defines progress using the Victorian terms "the assumption that a pattern of change exists in the history of mankind...that it consists of irreversible changes in one direction only, and that this direction is towards improvement". Despite the extended time span of the Stone Age
, Wright places the first sign of progress as being the ability to create fire. The competition between Cro-Magnon
and Neanderthal
s is examined with respect to the conditions that allowed one to out-compete the other.
The second chapter, "The Great Experiment", continues the examination of Stone age progress by looking at the advancements in hunting. Wright uses the term "progress trap
" to refer to innovations that create new problems for which the society is unable or unwilling to solve, or inadvertently create conditions that are worse than what existed before the innovation. For example, innovations in hunting during the Stone Age allowed for more successful hunts and consequently more free time during which culture and art were created (e.g. cave paintings, bone carvings, etc.), but also led to extinctions, most notably of megafauna
. As smaller and smaller game were hunted to replace larger extinct animals, the hunts became less successful and culture declined. With agriculture
, and subsequently civilizations, independently arising in multiple regions at about the same time, ~10,000 years ago, indicates to Wright that "given certain broad conditions, human societies everywhere will move towards greater size, complexity and environmental demand". The chapter title refers to the human experience which Wright sees as a large experiment testing what conditions are required for a human civilization to succeed.
In the third chapter, "Fools' Paradise", the rise and fall of two civilizations are examined: Easter Island
and Sumer
. Both flourished, but collapsed as a result of resource depletion
; both were able to visually see their land being eroded but were unwilling to reform. On Easter Island logging, in order to erect statues and build boats, destroyed their ecosystem and led to wars over the last planks of wood on the island. In Sumer, a large irrigation system, as well as over-grazing, land clearing, and lime-burning led to desertification
and soil salination.
In the fourth chapter, "Pyramid Schemes", the fates of the Roman
and Mayan
civilizations are compared; both peaked with centralized empires but ended with power being diffused to their periphery as the center collapsed and ultra-conservative leader refused reformations. Anthropologist Joseph Tainter
's explanation for the fall of the Roman Empire is invoked, that "complex systems inevitably succumb to diminishing returns" so that the costs of operating an empire are so high that alternatives are implemented. Two examples of civilizations that have been sustainable are described: China and Egypt. Both had an abundance of resources, particularly topsoil
, and used farming methods that worked with, rather than against, natural cycles, and settlement patterns that did not exceed, or permanently damage, the carrying capacity
of the local environment.
The final chapter, "The Rebellion of the Tools", seeks to answer the final Gauguin question, 'where are we going?', by applying these past examples to modern society. Technological advancements in bio-engineering, nanotechnology, cybernetics, amongst others, have the potential to be progress traps, and the global scale of modern society means that a societal collapse could impact all of mankind. Wright sees needed reforms being blocked by vested interests who reject multi-lateral organizations
, and support laissez-faire economics
and transfers of power to corporations as leading to the social and environmental degradations that led to the collapse of previous civilizations. Necessary reforms are, in Wright's view, being blocked by vested interests who are hostile to change, including American market extremists. Wright concludes that "our present behaviour is typical of failed societies at the zenith of their greed and arrogance" and calls for a shift towards long-term thinking:
; each speech is presented in the book as one chapter. The writing reflects Wright oration style with the use of high rhetoric. Patrick Parrinder
notes that Wright sometimes uses "the rhetorical armory of a rationalistic lay preacher." Wright takes a broad, philosophical approach, not focusing on individual people or specific politics or religions, but rather focusing on civilizations including 'the elites and the masses'. Wright's tone was described as "rarely depressing...[and that] he remains surprisingly upbeat and even entertaining." The use of the word progress is intended to be ironic: what is viewed as technological or social advancement have, in the historical narratives he provides, led to the fall of civilizations. Wright coins the term "progress trap
" to describe the phenomenon of turning "cleverness into recklessness."
Comparisons have been made between this book and Jared Diamond
's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed which both cover similar subject matter with "a cautious problem-solving approach" and come to similar conclusions. Writing in Alternatives Journal
, philosophy professor Kent Peacock notes that "both are well-written" but that Diamond includes examples of societies which had achieved sustainability
for centuries, whereas Wright has "a stronger grasp of the dark side of human nature", like impatience, aggressiveness, and obstinacy. Author and journalist Brian Brett
described Collapse as "a slow, rich feast" while "the compact A Short History of Progress is an arrow loosed from a powerful bow, a lyric dart into the heart of human behaviour."
, was released at the same time the Massey Lectures were being delivered. In early November 2004, one lecture was given by Wright in each of the following cities: Ottawa
, Edmonton
, Saskatoon
, Halifax and Toronto
. Their recording was broadcasted on CBC Radio's
Ideas
during the week of November 22 to 26. The book was named the Canadian Booksellers Association's 2005 Non-Fiction Book of the Year at their annual Libris Awards and short-listed for the first annual British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. A hardcover edition title An Illustrated Short History of Progress was released with a print run of 15,000 copies in 2006.
In The Globe and Mail
, Canadian author Paul William Roberts
praised the book saying it "is the most important use of printed word and post-consumer recycled fibres I have seen since Jérôme Deshusses's Délivrez Prométhée, 25 years ago." Roberts explains, "[Wright] has such a firm grasp of his goal that scarcely a word is extraneous... You feel you've read volumes, though, not just because of the density of Wright's thoughts, but due to the crushing weight of the burden they carry. In prose that is balefully evocative and irreducibly precise..." On the other hand, in the National Post
review, Peter Foster gave a negative review, chiding Wright for "not having the slightest clue about how economies work, or how, by their fundamental nature, markets are both moral and sustainable." Foster ended his review by insulting Wright's intellect, "What really needs some psychological excavation is Ronald Wright's mind, which carries a set of inflated, emotionally based moralistic assumptions derived from the structure of his primitive ignorance about markets and economics."
Other reviews were encouraging. In Maclean's
magazine Brian Bethune wrote it was a "an elegant and learned discussion" on the topic. The review in The Times
said it was "an eminently readable account...written with an incredible lightness of touch that belies the very serious issues." In the Montreal Gazette
, Bryan Demchinsky called Wright eloquent and the book "a brief, trenchant essay." Diane Barlee in Skeptic
magazine, said Wright is a "remarkably gifted wordsmith whose talent makes turgid facts not only digestible, but also generates a hunger for more" and commented "A Short History of Progress is an important, well-crafted book, however, I can't promise that it will change your life."
in 2008. It was filmed as a documentary directed by Mathieu Roy and co-directed by Harold Crooks with Daniel Louis
and Denise Robert
as producers for Cinemaginaire and Gerry Flahive as producer for NFB. Martin Scorsese
was attached to the project as executive producer as were Mark Achbar and Betsy Carson (Big Picture Media Corporation) and Silva Basmajian (NFB).
Ronald Wright
Ronald Wright is a Canadian author who has written books of travel, history and fiction. His nonfiction includes the bestseller Stolen Continents, winner of the Gordon Montador Award and chosen as a book of the year by the Independent and the Sunday Times...
about societal collapse
Societal collapse
Societal collapse broadly includes both quite abrupt societal failures typified by collapses , as well as more extended gradual declines of superpowers...
. The lectures were delivered as a series of five speeches, each taking place in different cities across Canada as part of the 2004 Massey Lectures
Massey Lectures
The Massey Lectures are an annual week-long series of lectures on a political, cultural or philosophical topic given in Canada by a noted scholar. They were created in 1961 to honour Vincent Massey, Governor General of Canada...
which was broadcast on the CBC Radio
CBC Radio
CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...
program, Ideas
Ideas (radio show)
Ideas is a long running scholarly radio documentary show on CBC Radio One. Co-created by Phyllis Webb and William A. Young, the show premiered in 1965 under the title The Best Ideas You'll Hear Tonight...
. The book version was published by House of Anansi Press
House of Anansi Press
House of Anansi Press is a Canadian publishing company, founded in 1967 by writers Dennis Lee and Dave Godfrey. The company specializes in finding and developing new Canadian writers of literary fiction, poetry, and non-fiction....
and released at the same time as the lectures. The book spent more than a year on Canadian bestseller lists, won the Canadian Book Association's Libris Award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and was nominated for the British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction
British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction
British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-fiction is a Canadian literary award. It is awarded annually since 2005 by the British Columbia Achievement Foundation. It is the largest non-fiction prize in Canada, rising from $25,000 2005-2007 to $40,000 since 2008...
. It has since been reprinted in a hardcover format with illustrations.
Wright, an author of fiction and non-fiction works, uses the fallen civilizations of Easter Island
Easter Island
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
, Sumer
Sumer
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....
, Rome
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
, and Maya
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
, as well as examples from the Stone Age, to see what conditions led to the downfall of society. He examines the meaning of progress
Progress (history)
In historiography and the philosophy of history, progress is the idea that the world can become increasingly better in terms of science, technology, modernization, liberty, democracy, quality of life, etc...
and its implications for civilizations — past and present — arguing that the twentieth century was a time of runaway growth in human population
World population
The world population is the total number of living humans on the planet Earth. As of today, it is estimated to be billion by the United States Census Bureau...
, consumption
Conspicuous consumption
Conspicuous consumption is spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status....
, and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
that has now placed an unsustainable
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
burden on all natural systems
Biosphere
The biosphere is the global sum of all ecosystems. It can also be called the zone of life on Earth, a closed and self-regulating system...
.
Background
Prior to being selected to deliver the Massey Lectures, Wright had written award-winning fiction and non-fiction books that deal with anthropology and civilizations. His 1992 non-fiction book Stolen Continents: The "New World" Through Indian Eyes was awarded the 1993 Gordon Montador Award from the Writers' Trust of CanadaWriters' Trust of Canada
The Writers' Trust of Canada is a non-profit organization which provides financial support to Canadian writers.Founded by Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton, Graeme Gibson, David Young and Margaret Laurence, the Writers' Trust of Canada was registered as a non-profit organization in 1976...
and his 1998 novel A Scientific Romance, about a museum curator who travels into the future and investigates the fate of the human race, won the David Higham Prize for Fiction
David Higham Prize for Fiction
The David Higham Prize for Fiction was inaugurated in 1975 to mark the 80th birthday of the late David Higham, literary agent, and was awarded annually to a citizen of the Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland, Pakistan, or South Africa for a first novel or book of short stories...
for first-time novelists. Wright traces the origins of the ideas behind A Short History of Progress to the material he studied while writing A Scientific Romance and his 2000 essay for The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
titled "Civilization is a Pyramid Scheme" about the fall of the ninth-century Mayan civilization.
Synopsis
The first chapter, "Gauguin’s Questions", poses the questions that provide a framework for the book. Referring to Paul GauguinPaul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
's painting of the same name
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? is one of Paul Gauguin's most famous paintings. Gauguin inscribed the original French title in the upper left corner: D'où Venons Nous / Que Sommes Nous / Où Allons Nous. The inscription the artist wrote on his canvas has no question mark, no...
the questions are: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? Wright defines progress using the Victorian terms "the assumption that a pattern of change exists in the history of mankind...that it consists of irreversible changes in one direction only, and that this direction is towards improvement". Despite the extended time span of the Stone Age
Stone Age
The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period, lasting about 2.5 million years , during which humans and their predecessor species in the genus Homo, as well as the earlier partly contemporary genera Australopithecus and Paranthropus, widely used exclusively stone as their hard material in the...
, Wright places the first sign of progress as being the ability to create fire. The competition between Cro-Magnon
Cro-Magnon
The Cro-Magnon were the first early modern humans of the European Upper Paleolithic. The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon-like humans are radiometrically dated to 35,000 years before present....
and Neanderthal
Neanderthal
The Neanderthal is an extinct member of the Homo genus known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia...
s is examined with respect to the conditions that allowed one to out-compete the other.
The second chapter, "The Great Experiment", continues the examination of Stone age progress by looking at the advancements in hunting. Wright uses the term "progress trap
Progress trap
A progress trap is the condition human societies experience when, in pursuing progress through human ingenuity, they inadvertently introduce problems they do not have the resources or political will to solve, for fear of short-term losses in status, stability or quality of life...
" to refer to innovations that create new problems for which the society is unable or unwilling to solve, or inadvertently create conditions that are worse than what existed before the innovation. For example, innovations in hunting during the Stone Age allowed for more successful hunts and consequently more free time during which culture and art were created (e.g. cave paintings, bone carvings, etc.), but also led to extinctions, most notably of megafauna
Megafauna
In terrestrial zoology, megafauna are "giant", "very large" or "large" animals. The most common thresholds used are or...
. As smaller and smaller game were hunted to replace larger extinct animals, the hunts became less successful and culture declined. With agriculture
History of agriculture
Agriculture was developed at least 10,000 years ago, and it has undergone significant developments since the time of the earliest cultivation. The Fertile Crescent of Western Asia, Egypt, and India were sites of the earliest planned sowing and harvesting of plants that had previously been gathered...
, and subsequently civilizations, independently arising in multiple regions at about the same time, ~10,000 years ago, indicates to Wright that "given certain broad conditions, human societies everywhere will move towards greater size, complexity and environmental demand". The chapter title refers to the human experience which Wright sees as a large experiment testing what conditions are required for a human civilization to succeed.
In the third chapter, "Fools' Paradise", the rise and fall of two civilizations are examined: Easter Island
Easter Island
Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile that was annexed in 1888, Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people...
and Sumer
Sumer
Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....
. Both flourished, but collapsed as a result of resource depletion
Resource depletion
Resource depletion is an economic term referring to the exhaustion of raw materials within a region. Resources are commonly divided between renewable resources and non-renewable resources...
; both were able to visually see their land being eroded but were unwilling to reform. On Easter Island logging, in order to erect statues and build boats, destroyed their ecosystem and led to wars over the last planks of wood on the island. In Sumer, a large irrigation system, as well as over-grazing, land clearing, and lime-burning led to desertification
Desertification
Desertification is the degradation of land in drylands. Caused by a variety of factors, such as climate change and human activities, desertification is one of the most significant global environmental problems.-Definitions:...
and soil salination.
In the fourth chapter, "Pyramid Schemes", the fates of the Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
and Mayan
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
civilizations are compared; both peaked with centralized empires but ended with power being diffused to their periphery as the center collapsed and ultra-conservative leader refused reformations. Anthropologist Joseph Tainter
Joseph Tainter
Joseph A. Tainter is a U.S. anthropologist and historian.Tainter studied anthropology at the University of California and Northwestern University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1975. He is currently a professor in the Department of Environment and Society at Utah State University...
's explanation for the fall of the Roman Empire is invoked, that "complex systems inevitably succumb to diminishing returns" so that the costs of operating an empire are so high that alternatives are implemented. Two examples of civilizations that have been sustainable are described: China and Egypt. Both had an abundance of resources, particularly topsoil
Topsoil
Topsoil is the upper, outermost layer of soil, usually the top to . It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs.-Importance:...
, and used farming methods that worked with, rather than against, natural cycles, and settlement patterns that did not exceed, or permanently damage, the carrying capacity
Carrying capacity
The carrying capacity of a biological species in an environment is the maximum population size of the species that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the food, habitat, water and other necessities available in the environment...
of the local environment.
The final chapter, "The Rebellion of the Tools", seeks to answer the final Gauguin question, 'where are we going?', by applying these past examples to modern society. Technological advancements in bio-engineering, nanotechnology, cybernetics, amongst others, have the potential to be progress traps, and the global scale of modern society means that a societal collapse could impact all of mankind. Wright sees needed reforms being blocked by vested interests who reject multi-lateral organizations
Multilateralism
Multilateralism is a term in international relations that refers to multiple countries working in concert on a given issue.International organizations, such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization are multilateral in nature...
, and support laissez-faire economics
Laissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....
and transfers of power to corporations as leading to the social and environmental degradations that led to the collapse of previous civilizations. Necessary reforms are, in Wright's view, being blocked by vested interests who are hostile to change, including American market extremists. Wright concludes that "our present behaviour is typical of failed societies at the zenith of their greed and arrogance" and calls for a shift towards long-term thinking:
Style
The contents of the book were originally written and delivered as a set of five speeches for the 2004 Massey LecturesMassey Lectures
The Massey Lectures are an annual week-long series of lectures on a political, cultural or philosophical topic given in Canada by a noted scholar. They were created in 1961 to honour Vincent Massey, Governor General of Canada...
; each speech is presented in the book as one chapter. The writing reflects Wright oration style with the use of high rhetoric. Patrick Parrinder
Patrick Parrinder
Patrick Parrinder is an academic, currently Professor of English at the School of English and American Literature at the University of Reading, having been educated at Leighton Park School before going on to King's College, Cambridge. He has written books of literary criticism on James Joyce and...
notes that Wright sometimes uses "the rhetorical armory of a rationalistic lay preacher." Wright takes a broad, philosophical approach, not focusing on individual people or specific politics or religions, but rather focusing on civilizations including 'the elites and the masses'. Wright's tone was described as "rarely depressing...[and that] he remains surprisingly upbeat and even entertaining." The use of the word progress is intended to be ironic: what is viewed as technological or social advancement have, in the historical narratives he provides, led to the fall of civilizations. Wright coins the term "progress trap
Progress trap
A progress trap is the condition human societies experience when, in pursuing progress through human ingenuity, they inadvertently introduce problems they do not have the resources or political will to solve, for fear of short-term losses in status, stability or quality of life...
" to describe the phenomenon of turning "cleverness into recklessness."
Comparisons have been made between this book and Jared Diamond
Jared Diamond
Jared Mason Diamond is an American scientist and author whose work draws from a variety of fields. He is currently Professor of Geography and Physiology at UCLA...
's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed which both cover similar subject matter with "a cautious problem-solving approach" and come to similar conclusions. Writing in Alternatives Journal
Alternatives Journal
Alternatives Journal is a not-for-profit environmental magazine based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It is the national Canadian magazine exploring environmental science, issues, policy and debate. The journal also serves as the official publication of the ....
, philosophy professor Kent Peacock notes that "both are well-written" but that Diamond includes examples of societies which had achieved sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...
for centuries, whereas Wright has "a stronger grasp of the dark side of human nature", like impatience, aggressiveness, and obstinacy. Author and journalist Brian Brett
Brian Brett
Brian Brett is a Canadian poet and novelist.He studied literature at Simon Fraser University from 1969 to 1974...
described Collapse as "a slow, rich feast" while "the compact A Short History of Progress is an arrow loosed from a powerful bow, a lyric dart into the heart of human behaviour."
Publication and reception
The book, published by House of Anansi PressHouse of Anansi Press
House of Anansi Press is a Canadian publishing company, founded in 1967 by writers Dennis Lee and Dave Godfrey. The company specializes in finding and developing new Canadian writers of literary fiction, poetry, and non-fiction....
, was released at the same time the Massey Lectures were being delivered. In early November 2004, one lecture was given by Wright in each of the following cities: Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
, Saskatoon
Saskatoon
Saskatoon is a city in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River. Residents of the city of Saskatoon are called Saskatonians. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Corman Park No. 344....
, Halifax and Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. Their recording was broadcasted on CBC Radio's
CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...
Ideas
Ideas (radio show)
Ideas is a long running scholarly radio documentary show on CBC Radio One. Co-created by Phyllis Webb and William A. Young, the show premiered in 1965 under the title The Best Ideas You'll Hear Tonight...
during the week of November 22 to 26. The book was named the Canadian Booksellers Association's 2005 Non-Fiction Book of the Year at their annual Libris Awards and short-listed for the first annual British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. A hardcover edition title An Illustrated Short History of Progress was released with a print run of 15,000 copies in 2006.
In The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
, Canadian author Paul William Roberts
Paul William Roberts
Paul William Roberts is a Canadian writer who lives in Toronto, Ontario.Born in Wales and educated at Exeter College, Oxford, where he gained a second in English Language and Literature, Roberts moved permanently to Canada in 1980...
praised the book saying it "is the most important use of printed word and post-consumer recycled fibres I have seen since Jérôme Deshusses's Délivrez Prométhée, 25 years ago." Roberts explains, "[Wright] has such a firm grasp of his goal that scarcely a word is extraneous... You feel you've read volumes, though, not just because of the density of Wright's thoughts, but due to the crushing weight of the burden they carry. In prose that is balefully evocative and irreducibly precise..." On the other hand, in the National Post
National Post
The National Post is a Canadian English-language national newspaper based in Don Mills, a district of Toronto. The paper is owned by Postmedia Network Inc. and is published Mondays through Saturdays...
review, Peter Foster gave a negative review, chiding Wright for "not having the slightest clue about how economies work, or how, by their fundamental nature, markets are both moral and sustainable." Foster ended his review by insulting Wright's intellect, "What really needs some psychological excavation is Ronald Wright's mind, which carries a set of inflated, emotionally based moralistic assumptions derived from the structure of his primitive ignorance about markets and economics."
Other reviews were encouraging. In Maclean's
Maclean's
Maclean's is a Canadian weekly news magazine, reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events.-History:Founded in 1905 by Toronto journalist/entrepreneur Lt.-Col. John Bayne Maclean, a 43-year-old trade magazine publisher who purchased an advertising agency's in-house...
magazine Brian Bethune wrote it was a "an elegant and learned discussion" on the topic. The review in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
said it was "an eminently readable account...written with an incredible lightness of touch that belies the very serious issues." In the Montreal Gazette
The Gazette (Montreal)
The Gazette, often called the Montreal Gazette to avoid ambiguity, is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with three other daily English newspapers all having shut down at different times during the second half of the 20th century.-History:In 1778,...
, Bryan Demchinsky called Wright eloquent and the book "a brief, trenchant essay." Diane Barlee in Skeptic
Skeptic (U.S. magazine)
Skeptic is a quarterly science education and science advocacy magazine published internationally by The Skeptics Society, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting scientific skepticism and resisting the spread of pseudoscience, superstition, and irrational beliefs...
magazine, said Wright is a "remarkably gifted wordsmith whose talent makes turgid facts not only digestible, but also generates a hunger for more" and commented "A Short History of Progress is an important, well-crafted book, however, I can't promise that it will change your life."
Film
The film rights were sold to CinémaginaireCinémaginaire
Cinémaginaire is a Canadian film production company. The company is based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and is headed by co-founders Denise Robert, who serves as President and Daniel Louis, who serves as Vice President.- External links :...
in 2008. It was filmed as a documentary directed by Mathieu Roy and co-directed by Harold Crooks with Daniel Louis
Daniel Louis
Daniel Louis is a Canadian film producer. He is co-founder, with Denise Robert, of Cinémaginaire....
and Denise Robert
Denise Robert
Denise Robert is a Canadian film producer, co-founder and President of Cinémaginaire with Daniel Louis. She is currently married to Denys Arcand and she has produced many of his films. Robert has won many awards, including four Genie Awards. She was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture...
as producers for Cinemaginaire and Gerry Flahive as producer for NFB. Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
was attached to the project as executive producer as were Mark Achbar and Betsy Carson (Big Picture Media Corporation) and Silva Basmajian (NFB).
See also
- DeforestationDeforestationDeforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
- Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human ViolenceDemonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human ViolenceIs a 1997 book by Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson examining the evolutionary factors leading to human violence.-External links:Is a 1997 book by Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson examining the evolutionary factors leading to human violence....
- EcosystemEcosystemAn ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving , physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight....
- ErosionErosionErosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
- Millennium Ecosystem AssessmentMillennium Ecosystem AssessmentThe Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, released in 2005, is an international synthesis by over 1000 of the world's leading biological scientists that analyses the state of the Earth’s ecosystems and provides summaries and guidelines for decision-makers...
- Our Final Century
- Plows, Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of ClimatePlows, Plagues and PetroleumPlows, Plagues and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate is a 2005 book published by Princeton University Press and written by William Ruddiman, a paleoclimatologist and Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia. He has authored and co-authored several different books and academic...
External links
- House of Anansi Press — A Short History of Progress
- CBC Radio, Ideas — 2004 Massey Lectures
- Cinémaginaire — Theatrical Feature Documentary
- Stu's Notes — Summary of selected passages
- Podcast — Chapter I: Gauguin's Questions
- Podcast — Chapter II: The Great Experiment
- Podcast — Interview with Ronald Wright, April 10, 2005, EcoTalk on Air America
- Civilization is a Pyramid Scheme — The earlier The Globe and MailThe Globe and MailThe Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
newspaper article by Ronald Wright, Saturday, August 5, 2000 - YouTube — An Illustrated Short History of Progress Book Review