[D66] A Short History of Progress

[R.O.]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Progress

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 were 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.[1] The book 
spent more than a year on Canadian best-seller 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 and also in Kindle and EPUB digital formats.

Wright, an author of fiction and non-fiction works, uses the fallen 
civilisations of Easter Island, Sumer, Rome, and Maya, as well as 
examples from the Stone Age, to see what conditions led to the downfall 
of those societies. 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.