'A spirited skewering of the idea that things can only get better' The Guardian
'A new understanding of our past' Danny Dorling, author of Inequality and the 1%
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Progress is power. But our modern story of progress is a very dangerous fiction.
In the pursuit of progress, of growth and expansion, we have levelled cities, flattened mountains, charted the globe and ushered in a new geological epoch unique in our planet’s 4.5-billion-year history. The idea of progress has compelled societies toward exploration, invention, and grandiosity on one hand, and on the other, genocide, slavery, ecocide, and conquest: it is the root of our civilization’s success, as well as its looming demise.
Geographer Samuel Miller McDonald offers a radical new perspective on the myth upon which the modern world is built, illuminating its blood-strewn lineage and suggesting an urgent alternative. He traces the history of how human societies broke from their pasts, broke from their environments, and broke from longstanding egalitarian values that sustained them, supplanting these with one imperative to rule all others: progress.
If humanity is to have any chance of a future, then we must fundamentally change the way we think about one of our most basic political ideas. This landmark work shows us where to begin.
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'Progress explodes the great myth of our time. Lucid and wise' David Farrier, author of Footprints
'If you think progress will take us to the promised land, this is a must-read' Alpa Shah, author of The Incarcerations
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Progress 9780008462475 Hardback
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Samuel Miller McDonald, Progress: A History of Humanity's Worst Idea
Can McDonald possibly justify the book's attention-grabbing subtitle? Surprisingly, I think he largely does. The book's scope, historically and geographically, is broad, and the narrative centres on three kinds of relationships between people and the natural environment: mutualist (mutuall…
Can McDonald possibly justify the book's attention-grabbing subtitle? Surprisingly, I think he largely does. The book's scope, historically and geographically, is broad, and the narrative centres on three kinds of relationships between people and the natural environment: mutualist (mutually beneficial), commensalist (one-sided benefits but no harm done) and parasitic (benefits for one side, harm to the otherr). The author's claim is that, for most of our 300,000 year history, our relations with the natural world were mutualist or commensalist. This changed from around 3000 BCE through the sweeping cultural influences of religions, then the creation of nations and then recent economic systems. All promoted the legitimacy of dominion over nature and then over other groups of people, in the service of higher or wider authorities, and in pursuit of material and territorial advancement. This is parasitism, and the consequences today are looming climate and ecological collapse and disregard for the rights and wellbeing of other peoples. The solution is progress of a different kind: major moral shifts and the abandonment of capitalism in favour of economic degrowth. McDonald's evidence sometimes seems skewed and his arguments are not always convincing, but the book is very interesting and its conclusions increasingly believable.
- Authors:
- Miller McDonald, Samuel
- Year Published:
- 2025
- Country of Publication:
- United Kingdom
- Format:
- Hardback
- ISBN:
- 9780008462475
- Number of Pages:
- 432
- Publisher:
- HarperCollins Publishers
- Place of Publication:
- London
- Language:
- English
- Publication Date:
- 14/08/2025
- SKU:
- 9780008462475