Massey Lectures 2004

Each time history repeats itself, so it's said, the price goes up. The twentieth century was a time of runaway growth in human population, consumption, and technology, placing a colossal load on all natural systems, especially earth, air, and water—the very elements of life. The most urgent questions of the twenty-first century are: where will this growth lead? Can it be consolidated or sustained? And what kind of world is our present bequeathing to our future? In A Short History of Progress Ronald Wright argues that our modern predicament is as old as civilization, a 10,000-year experiment we have participated in but seldom controlled. Only by understanding the patterns of triumph and disaster that humanity has repeated around the world since the Stone Age, can we recognize the experiment’s inherent dangers, and, with luck and wisdom, shape its outcome.

Ronald Wright was born in England, educated at Cambridge, and now lives in British Columbia. A novelist, historian, and essayist, he has won prizes in all three genres, and is published in ten languages. His nonfiction includes the number one bestseller Stolen Continents, winner of the Gordon Montador Award and chosen as a book of the year by the Independent and the Sunday Times. His first novel, A Scientific Romance, won the 1997 David Higham Prize for Fiction and was chosen a book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the Sunday Times, and the New York Times. His latest book is the novel Henderson’s Spear. Ronald Wright is also a frequent contributor to the Times Literary Supplement, and has written and presented documentaries for radio and television on both sides of the Atlantic.

The lectures will be broadcast on IDEAS the week of November 22-26.

Listen to A Short History of Progress Part One

Please note: Part One of the Massey Lectures will be the only lecture of the series posted online.

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Discuss A Short History of Progress at the House of Anansi online forum.

BOOKS AND CDs FOR SALE:
A Short History of Progress is published by House of Anansi Press. The broadcast lectures of A Short History of Progress is available as a set of five CDs/audio cassettes, at a cost of $49.95, taxes and shipping included. The book A Short History of Progress is available for $23.50, taxes and shipping included.

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