A Short History Of Progress By Ronald Wright

Author Ronald Wright is billed as an historian and novelist. An archeology major, Wright seems drawn to history as he attempts to educate readers about the past and its connection to the present and our future in his book, A Short History of Progress. Despite the title, Wright’s purpose is to show his audience that, like the ancient civilizations, we are doomed to extinction unless we can create sustainability. He creates a dramatic and fear-inducing tone to convey to readers the idea that progress is dangerous and unless we learn to tame it, we are all doomed to extinction.
Wright opens by identifying progress as a myth, “Our practical faith in progress has ramified and hardened into an ideology—a secular religion which, like the religions