Progress - How One Idea Built Civilisation and Now Threatens to Destroy It

A landmark book that overturns everything we think we know about humankind-s greatest idea. Progress is power. Narratives of progress, the stories we tell about whether a society is moving in the right or the wrong direction, are immensely potent. They have levelled cities, flattened mountains, charted the globe and ushered in a new geological epoch unique in our planets 4.5-billion-year history.But the modern story of progress is an also very dangerous fiction. This tall tale has spread across the globe, shaping nearly everyone-s sense of what progress means, what it should mean, and where our society ought to go.Because of this, we live in a paradoxical world, where we continue to subscribe to a set of myths; about dominion, growth and expansion, that are at the root of our civilisation''s demise. Geographer Samuel Miller McDonald-s first book offers a radical new perspective on the five progress myths upon which the modern world is built, illuminating its blood-strewn lineage and su