A Short History of Progress

Terry A. Crowley is a professor of history at the University of Guelph,
and the former editor of the journal, Ontario History. He is the author
of Agnes Macphail and the Politics of Equality, Canadian History to
1967, and Marriage of Minds: Isabel and Osc

Is the fate of humanity so dismal that we are forced to imagine a path
to progress to assuage our worst fears, or are we indeed so thoroughly
wonderful that we need to place ourselves atop an ever-ascending linear
progression? Thoughts either of progress or of decline have infested
Western thinking since the Enlightenment of the 18th century, when they
became a secularized conception of Christian ideas of God’s
providence. The 19th century was particularly fertile ground for ideas
of progress that emerged in response to the material explosion
accompanying industrialization and expanding world trade. The dropping
of atomic bombs, the development of nuclear weapons, and the adverse
environmental effects of industrial activities seen in such things as
Minamata disease (mercury poisoning) killed notions of progress in many
quarters, but they continue to underpin human hopes in other areas.

Ronald Wright’s 2004 Massey lectures were somewhat ironically titled
“A Short History of Progress.” In these lectures, the award-winning
author is interested neither in expounding a vision of progress nor in
examining the roots of such visions. What he does instead is examine
both past societies that have vanished (such as Sumer in the ancient
Near East or the former Mayan empire) and those that have been more
successful over the longer term (such as China). His survey of past
civilizations is rich and engaging, especially when it deals with past
American societies that were once excluded from such overviews. Wright
uses this broad canvas to issue a warning. Only those societies that
have not drawn more interest than their resources produce, and have
therefore not eaten into their capital, can survive over the longer
term. Western societies have recently gone seriously beyond equilibrium
with their environmental resources and are currently devouring the
Earth’s capital at an astounding rate.

A Short History of Progress is a pleasure to read. Wright’s solidly
based argument should be read by people concerned with where we have
come from, where we are going, and how we might alter the path we have
recently chosen.