{"title":"Samuel Miller Mcdonald","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"progress-book-samuel-miller-mcdonald-9780008462475","title":"Progress","description":"'A spirited skewering of the idea that things can only get better' The Guardian                                     'A new understanding of our past' Danny Dorling, author of Inequality and the 1%                        ________________________________                          Progress is power. But our modern story of progress is a very dangerous fiction.                         In the pursuit of progress, of growth and expansion, we have levelled cities, flattened mountains, charted the globe and ushered in a new geological epoch unique in our planet’s 4.5-billion-year history. The idea of progress has compelled societies toward exploration, invention, and grandiosity on one hand, and on the other, genocide, slavery, ecocide, and conquest: it is the root of our civilization’s success, as well as its looming demise.             Geographer Samuel Miller McDonald offers a radical new perspective on the myth upon which the modern world is built, illuminating its blood-strewn lineage and suggesting an urgent alternative. He traces the history of how human societies broke from their pasts, broke from their environments, and broke from longstanding egalitarian values that sustained them, supplanting these with one imperative to rule all others: progress.             If humanity is to have any chance of a future, then we must fundamentally change the way we think about one of our most basic political ideas. This landmark work shows us where to begin.             ________________________________             'Progress explodes the great myth of our time. Lucid and wise' David Farrier, author of Footprints                          'If you think progress will take us to the promised land, this is a must-read' Alpa Shah, author of The Incarcerations","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51201589313809,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51201590362385,"sku":"NGR9780008462475","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52388318445841,"sku":"GOR014512092","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52487015661841,"sku":"NLS9780008462475","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52788913340689,"sku":"GOR014622057","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/000846247X.jpg?v=1754487897"},{"product_id":"progress-book-samuel-miller-mcdonald-9780008462482","title":"Progress","description":"'A spirited skewering of the idea that things can only get better' The Guardian                                     'A new understanding of our past' Danny Dorling, author of Inequality and the 1%                        ________________________________                          Progress is power. But our modern story of progress is a very dangerous fiction.                         In the pursuit of progress, of growth and expansion, we have levelled cities, flattened mountains, charted the globe and ushered in a new geological epoch unique in our planet’s 4.5-billion-year history. The idea of progress has compelled societies toward exploration, invention, and grandiosity on one hand, and on the other, genocide, slavery, ecocide, and conquest: it is the root of our civilization’s success, as well as its looming demise.             Geographer Samuel Miller McDonald offers a radical new perspective on the myth upon which the modern world is built, illuminating its blood-strewn lineage and suggesting an urgent alternative. He traces the history of how human societies broke from their pasts, broke from their environments, and broke from longstanding egalitarian values that sustained them, supplanting these with one imperative to rule all others: progress.             If humanity is to have any chance of a future, then we must fundamentally change the way we think about one of our most basic political ideas. This landmark work shows us where to begin.             ________________________________             'Progress explodes the great myth of our time. Lucid and wise' David Farrier, author of Footprints                          'If you think progress will take us to the promised land, this is a must-read' Alpa Shah, author of The Incarcerations","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51630331822353,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51630333755665,"sku":"NGR9780008462482","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0008462488.jpg?v=1750842203"},{"product_id":"progress-book-samuel-miller-mcdonald-9781250278319","title":"Progress","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFor readers of Thomas Piketty, David Graeber, and Jared Diamond: A bold, provocative, wide-ranging argument about the human idea of progress that offers a new vision of our future\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e 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. Progress has built cities, flattened mountains, charted the globe, delved the oceans and space, created wealth, opportunity, and remarkable innovation, and ushered in a new epoch unique in our planet's 4.5-billion-year history.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e But the modern story of progress is also a very dangerous fiction. It shapes our sense of what progress means, and justifies what we will do to achieve it--no matter the cost. We continue to subscribe to a set of myths, about dominion, growth, extraction, and expansion, that have fueled our success, but now threaten our--and all species'-- existence on a planet in crisis.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eProgress\u003c\/i\u003e, geographer Samuel Miller McDonald offers a radical new perspective on the myths upon which the modern world is built, illuminating its destructive lineage and suggesting an urgent alternative. Drawing on interdisciplinary research across anthropology, history, philosophy and geography, McDonald argues that if humanity is to thrive, then we must dismantle, reimagine, and create anew what progress means.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52726482927889,"sku":"NIN9781250278319","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53202764824849,"sku":"CIN1250278317VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53335239196945,"sku":"CIN1250278317G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":53450492510481,"sku":"NGR9781250278319","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781250278319.jpg?v=1763142235"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-samuel-miller-mcdonald.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}