shopping cart
Call us:  800-878-7323 HELP
McAfee SECURE helps keep you safe from identity theft, credit card fraud, spyware, spam, viruses and online scams.
Interviews | July 4, 2009

All posts by Jill Owens Powells.com Interview: Luis Alberto Urrea

Luis Alberto Urrea is a poet, novelist, journalist, and essayist who has been writing about the relationship between the United States and Mexico,... Continue »


  1. $17.49 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    Into the Beautiful North

    Luis Alberto Urrea

Ships free on qualified orders.
$9.95
List price: $14.95
TRADE PAPER, USED
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
1 Beaverton Sociology- General
1 Burnside Anthropology- General


A Short History of Progress

by Ronald Wright

A Short History of Progress Cover

ISBN13: 9780786715473
ISBN10: 0786715472
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 2 left in stock at $9.95!

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Each time history repeats itself, the cost goes up. The twentieth century — a time of unprecedented progress — has produced a tremendous strain on the very elements that comprise life itself: This raises the key question of the twenty-first century: How much longer can this go on? With wit and erudition, Ronald Wright lays out a-convincing case that history has always provided an answer, whether we care to notice or not. From Neanderthal man to the Sumerians to the Roman Empire, A Short History of Progress dissects the cyclical nature of humanity's development and demise, the 10,000-year old experiment that we've unleashed but have yet to control.

It is Wright's contention that only by understanding and ultimately breaking from the patterns of progress and disaster that humanity has repeated around the world since the Stone Age can we avoid the onset of a new Dark Age. Wright illustrates how various cultures throughout history have literally manufactured their own end by producing an overabundance of innovation and stripping bare the very elements that allowed them to initially advance. Wright's book is brilliant; a fascinating rumination on the hubris at the heart of human development and the pitfalls we still may have time to avoid.

Review:

"Wright crafts an entertaining tale of eras gone by, incorporating relevant facts on subjects as diverse as the lifestyles of early hominids and recent patterns of climate change, and demonstrating the holistic importance of natural resources to a society." Publishers Weekly

Review:

"Illuminating and disturbing, and expansively documented." Kirkus Reviews

Synopsis:

From Neanderthal man to the Sumerians to the Roman Empire, "A Short History of Progress" dissects the cyclical nature of humanity's development and demise, the 10,000-year-old experiment that people have unleashed but have yet to control.

About the Author

Ronald Wright's critically acclaimed first novel, A Scientific Romance, was a New York Times Notable Book. His nonfiction includes Stolen Continents, an award-winning history of the Americas, and Time Among the Maya. He lives in Port Hope, Ontario.

Product Details

ISBN:
9780786715473
Author:
Wright, Ronald
Publisher:
Da Capo Press
Subject:
History
Subject:
Civilization
Subject:
Sociology - Social Theory
Subject:
Progress
Subject:
HISTORY / Social History
Subject:
HIS054000
Subject:
Progress -- History.
Edition Description:
Carroll & Graf
Publication Date:
February 2005
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Pages:
224
Dimensions:
8.24x5.60x.59 in. .45 lbs.

Other books you might like

  1. $10.95 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  2. $8.95 Used Hardcover add to wish list
  3. $3.50 Used Mass Market add to wish list

    The Color Purple

    Alice Walker
  4. $3.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list
  5. $6.50 Used Trade Paper add to wish list

    The Red Tent

    Anita Diamant
  6. $36.75 New Trade Paper add to wish list

Related Aisles

  • back to top

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.