It is quite useless to caparison this review with magnificent words. All I can state is – just read this succinct yet highly important book. The book will truly implore you to think about the world history and the future of our rather too progressive civilization.

A brilliant insight into what Homo sapiens have done, are doing, and will do to our environment if the terms like 'development' and 'progress' are taken out of context from the finite world of ours. Wright provides fascinating case studies of different socieites and civilizations, and explores their destructive actions to their surroundings and ultimately themselves in ways that seem so simple and obvious, yet consequential all the same. This is an interesting read, even if non-fiction is not your cup of tea as it succeeds in wording history as a fascinating short story.

A Short History of Progress is like a short version of Jarred Diamond's Collapse. This book looks at the current roads western culture is taking us in relation to technology and waste. By the end of the book the reader is left with a bit of a bleak outlook of humankind and the potential we have for destroying ourselves. Ronald Wright does leave us with a "road map" for avoiding a cultural and economic collapse, however the odds of us being able to identify and correct the threat is slim at best. This book is one of many red flags that has gone up in the last few years on this topic and is a good read if you are concerned about the state of the world.

Well, Mr Wright, I'll admit it, you had me... you collected superb agricultural data, and winningly merried it with 3rd party prose; your chapters were bursting with life and crime, wit and hyperbole, meaning and pettyness... but in the end, you're just a wing-nut !

It's a good thing it's not a long book, because the conclusion (ripe with useless, motherly sentiments we've all heard before) is so benign you'll (hopefully) forget there even was one in minutes, leaving you with a lasting rememberance of the finer points before it. Right until about half-way through the final chapter, the author pretty much nails every civilisations' tragic flaw, from their emergence to their build-up, to the final coup-de grace. It's a succinct, exhaustively researched (though lacking in primary sources), often entertaining history book, covering everyone's favourites: the Mayans, the Inca, the Romans, Mesopotamia, Egypt, America, Canada...

Despite the ending, it's still a worthwhile read, but I wouldn't pay full price for it...

This book really makes you think where we are heading as humanity into our future. It was amazingly written.

This novel is really a cautionary tale of the power of our adaptability as a species. We have (and continue to) destroyed our surroundings for temporary gain / comfort / gratification since time imemorial. When you finish the book, you will see the supreme irony in the title, particularly the word 'progress', as little real progress has been made in our culture, with respect to living within our means. Highly recommend you read this book in conjunction with Daniel Quinn's 'Ishmael'.

An excellent book for those who want an introduction to the issues facing the future of humanity. This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I am glad that she did. It is a well developed thesis, in a writing style that is accessible to all. It covers major issues concerning humanity today. Issues which, unfortunately, are rarely showcased in the media. A recommendation to any non-avid readers: READ THE FOOTNOTES! This books is chock full of interesting anecdotes to accompany important points throughout its pages.

My only criticism is that for the reader who is well-informed on these issues Wright offers little new facts or information. I found the book to be lacking in this regard. However, it compensates by serving as an interesting and compelling synthesis of elements that one might not otherwise bring together.

A book that everyone should read, but doesn't quite have the overall shine to make it great.

This book was presented in part in a lecture series by the CBC Radio. I found it a compelling read as well as a disturbing point of view. Civilizations have fallen before, and Wright uses know facts about past failures to argument that mankind is on the cusp of massive, catatrophic fall into another Dark Age. It forced me to begin thinking of how we can survive, and what is needed to prepare for the possibility. What would be the signs? Wright gives us a bleak but not hopeless look at a possible future.