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Progress: How One Idea Built Civilization and Now Threatens to Destroy It
For 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
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.
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.
In Progress, 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.
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.
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.
In Progress, 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.
422 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication December 2, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 13, 2025
This book provides a critical look at "progress," something that most of us assume to be a good thing. A second look is taken at the ways progress is measured and the book explains how progress isn’t always as positive as perceived depending on the measured parameters. The book also shows how thus far in history progress has always depended on a parasitic, extractive, and expanding mode of operation. This kind of progress has culminated today with economist who assume exponential growth can continue forever on a finite earth. The book's conclusion is that we have no choice but to change future progress into a direction that is in equilibrium with the regenerative capacity of the earth.
The author provides a history of human civilization by beginning with the time "before progress" when human life was fully embedded within the natural environment. Then the book's narrative describes the era from 3000 BCE to 1400 CE as a time when human life and progress was tied up in the realm of the theological and mythical, and the parasitism was contiguous and regional. Agents then were city-states, kingdoms, and empires.
Next the time from 1400 to 1900 is explored with progress described as secular and rational, and the parasitism is described as disparate and maritime and often was in the form of colonialism. Agents of this era were kingdoms, nation-states, and empires.
Finally the book addresses the time period from 1900 to the present and describes progress as economic and ideological with parasitism networked and based on fossil fuel. Agents of this time are nation-states, corporations, and ideological coalitions. The discussion of ideologies includes Keynesianism, Communism, and Neoliberalism, and particular emphasis is placed on identifying Neoliberalism as an ideology that is just as theoretical and removed from reality as the other ideologies because on its expectation that unending compounded growth is possible on a finite earth.
The author tries to end the book with a note of optimism by offering an optimistic chapter titled "After Progress." Unfortunately, it is more of a hopeful vision than a recipe on how to change from parasitic economies to commensalistic ones. He acknowledges that we can't return to the conditions that existed prior to parasitic growth, and we'll need to find solutions to fit current conditions.
I will conclude this review with the following excerpt near the end of the book which can serve as a sort of summary conclusion:
The author provides a history of human civilization by beginning with the time "before progress" when human life was fully embedded within the natural environment. Then the book's narrative describes the era from 3000 BCE to 1400 CE as a time when human life and progress was tied up in the realm of the theological and mythical, and the parasitism was contiguous and regional. Agents then were city-states, kingdoms, and empires.
Next the time from 1400 to 1900 is explored with progress described as secular and rational, and the parasitism is described as disparate and maritime and often was in the form of colonialism. Agents of this era were kingdoms, nation-states, and empires.
Finally the book addresses the time period from 1900 to the present and describes progress as economic and ideological with parasitism networked and based on fossil fuel. Agents of this time are nation-states, corporations, and ideological coalitions. The discussion of ideologies includes Keynesianism, Communism, and Neoliberalism, and particular emphasis is placed on identifying Neoliberalism as an ideology that is just as theoretical and removed from reality as the other ideologies because on its expectation that unending compounded growth is possible on a finite earth.
The author tries to end the book with a note of optimism by offering an optimistic chapter titled "After Progress." Unfortunately, it is more of a hopeful vision than a recipe on how to change from parasitic economies to commensalistic ones. He acknowledges that we can't return to the conditions that existed prior to parasitic growth, and we'll need to find solutions to fit current conditions.
...we have to reconcile the necessities of the moment with those of the past and the conditions of the future. There is no one single model for how best to organize a society since what's best will depend on local ecologies and circumstances. The Anthropocene is likely to be an epoch of re-diversifying human cultures and societies even as coastlines shift, deserts expand and climate zones climb latitudes. What I am most concerned with is that the faulty relationship between human systems and ecological systems at the heart of the last 5,000 years. A relationship built on expansion and exploitation should be forever destroyed. Freedom from parasitism will ensure long-term survival of some sort.The final chapter of the book is titled "Meaning Beyond Progress" in which the author explores several philosophies of life that will find meaning "in deferring the fulfillment of certain present impulses in the interest of future balance." Wise individuals arriving at such a state of mind is conceivable, but one must wonder about the widespread adoption of such thinking to achieve needed change.
I will conclude this review with the following excerpt near the end of the book which can serve as a sort of summary conclusion:
For 5 millennia, progress has offered a paradise of tomorrow, a new frontier that would finally bring everlasting joy, peace and contentment, not revealing that someone else's paradise had to be destroyed to open that frontier. In order to have any future, or any worth enduring, we need a new conception of our place in our ongoing history. We might not build paradise but at least we may craft branching slivers of peace and contentment, arteries coursing through the world along which joy, life, and beauty may still pass.I had access to a prepublication ebook edition of this book using the NetGalley Reader.
November 22, 2025
⭐⭐⭐.5
Pre-Read Notes:
I like the idea that this book is about progress without taking the moral position that human society *has* progressed. It leaves the discussion open to deeper examination and application.
"We are a species of ape whose psychology is highly social and, under many circumstances , generous and gentle. Acting out all the evil that is required – or if not required, expedient – to run this economy requires engaging in advanced psychological manipulation, of ourselves and others. It is not simply that rulers must achieve positions of power and then trick their prosocial followers to engage in their projects. Class harmony depends on a shared mission. Only a collective mass delusion that is believed in as strongly, or more strongly, by the leaders of this economy as by those whose own hands turn its wheels would allow such a project to continue so smoothly, for so long." p31
Final Review
(thoughts & recs) This is one of those books where I liked the first half more than the second. The premise was interesting -- an exploration of how the traditional notion of progress is anything but, for the planet and even humanity. Unfortunately, as the author expanded on his topic and pulled in more and more examples, I started finding the book unwieldy.
It's a great discussion and worthwhile, but I want to give it another, slower pass in the future.
I recommend this book to fans of Malcolm Gladwell and SAPIENS by Yuval Noah Harari.
My Favorite Things:
✔️ "Barbarism has, in the meantime, been receding before the steady step of amelioration , and will in time, I trust, disappear from the earth. 1 This passage is from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1824, two years before his death and thirty-nine years after the American Revolutionary War." p7 A little optimistic, wasn't he?
✔️ "Does this mean progress is real? Is it true that humanity as a whole has moved from dark savagery to enlightened modern civilisation? Even if we home in on only the twentieth century, is it fair to say this period has been marked primarily by ‘progress’? It’s worth taking a moment to complicate the answers to these questions and consider the possibility that they are more often closer to ‘no’ than ‘yes’. So many of us have had notions of progress deeply forced into the architecture of how we understand the world, an alloy melted into the beams that bear the weight of our knowledge." p13 The question of whether a society has made progress is after all a moral question and the systems of power don't *like* those!
✔️ "Christian kingdoms during this period consistently used Christianity as a political and social tool, and they clearly did so in the interest of maintaining and expanding parasitic economies and energy capture." p84 I'm starting to see a common thread-- people + greed = all the bad things for the earth. Also, it's remarkable to me how much religious histories play into this discussion.
Thank you to Samuel Miller MacDonald, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an accessible digital arc of PROGRESS. All views are mine.
Pre-Read Notes:
I like the idea that this book is about progress without taking the moral position that human society *has* progressed. It leaves the discussion open to deeper examination and application.
"We are a species of ape whose psychology is highly social and, under many circumstances , generous and gentle. Acting out all the evil that is required – or if not required, expedient – to run this economy requires engaging in advanced psychological manipulation, of ourselves and others. It is not simply that rulers must achieve positions of power and then trick their prosocial followers to engage in their projects. Class harmony depends on a shared mission. Only a collective mass delusion that is believed in as strongly, or more strongly, by the leaders of this economy as by those whose own hands turn its wheels would allow such a project to continue so smoothly, for so long." p31
Final Review
(thoughts & recs) This is one of those books where I liked the first half more than the second. The premise was interesting -- an exploration of how the traditional notion of progress is anything but, for the planet and even humanity. Unfortunately, as the author expanded on his topic and pulled in more and more examples, I started finding the book unwieldy.
It's a great discussion and worthwhile, but I want to give it another, slower pass in the future.
I recommend this book to fans of Malcolm Gladwell and SAPIENS by Yuval Noah Harari.
My Favorite Things:
✔️ "Barbarism has, in the meantime, been receding before the steady step of amelioration , and will in time, I trust, disappear from the earth. 1 This passage is from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1824, two years before his death and thirty-nine years after the American Revolutionary War." p7 A little optimistic, wasn't he?
✔️ "Does this mean progress is real? Is it true that humanity as a whole has moved from dark savagery to enlightened modern civilisation? Even if we home in on only the twentieth century, is it fair to say this period has been marked primarily by ‘progress’? It’s worth taking a moment to complicate the answers to these questions and consider the possibility that they are more often closer to ‘no’ than ‘yes’. So many of us have had notions of progress deeply forced into the architecture of how we understand the world, an alloy melted into the beams that bear the weight of our knowledge." p13 The question of whether a society has made progress is after all a moral question and the systems of power don't *like* those!
✔️ "Christian kingdoms during this period consistently used Christianity as a political and social tool, and they clearly did so in the interest of maintaining and expanding parasitic economies and energy capture." p84 I'm starting to see a common thread-- people + greed = all the bad things for the earth. Also, it's remarkable to me how much religious histories play into this discussion.
Thank you to Samuel Miller MacDonald, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an accessible digital arc of PROGRESS. All views are mine.
July 10, 2025
While given an e-copy in exchange for an honest review, gotta say this is an overlong and America-centric criticism of a very pervasive and destructive economic, philosophical, and technological mindset that is destroying our (human) capacity to be a part of the natural world. It is quite good, and is sourced excellently and makes it easy for those that haven’t done the reading and likely won’t do the reading to have done some kind of reading. Highly rated for readability and for the ideas put forward, even if those ideas aren’t new or completely confidently stated. But this isn’t a manifesto. It’s a call to reexamine an entire civilization’s way of life. Sure. It works. For what it is. Thanks, NetGalley.
August 19, 2025
This book has a provocative premise: What if, for the past 5,000 years, human beings have not made progress? What if things have actually gotten worse?
The author interrogates the major progress myths that have governed western societies, from dominion over other species granted by Abrahamic religions, through the scientific rationality of Enlightenment thought, to manifest destiny, to the 20th-century battle between fascist, socialist, and liberal visions of progress, to billionaire promises of off-world utopias.
This is 'progress' as unrestrained economic growth, development, and expansion. Progress as an instrument of propaganda to ensure mass complacency, obedience, and subservience.
The book is challenging, stirring, and deeply original. Miller McDonald comes from a left-environmental activist background and the moral force of that experience comes through - though the book remains unorthodox in its thinking as the author strives to identify what is true over what is politically accepted.
Some early reviews have accused the book of being doomerist, but its claims are rigorously researched (Miller McDonald did a DPhil at Oxford) and grounded in hard truths about the challenges we now face: from rising authoritarianism to declining health and well-being indicators, rampant inequality to ecological annihilation.
PROGRESS is an unflinching examination of today's most pervasive belief. But it also gives us hope that progress could mean something else: ecological restoration, compounding knowledge practices, robust communities, solidarity against greed and corruption. The universe has no moral arc but the one we make.
The author interrogates the major progress myths that have governed western societies, from dominion over other species granted by Abrahamic religions, through the scientific rationality of Enlightenment thought, to manifest destiny, to the 20th-century battle between fascist, socialist, and liberal visions of progress, to billionaire promises of off-world utopias.
This is 'progress' as unrestrained economic growth, development, and expansion. Progress as an instrument of propaganda to ensure mass complacency, obedience, and subservience.
The book is challenging, stirring, and deeply original. Miller McDonald comes from a left-environmental activist background and the moral force of that experience comes through - though the book remains unorthodox in its thinking as the author strives to identify what is true over what is politically accepted.
Some early reviews have accused the book of being doomerist, but its claims are rigorously researched (Miller McDonald did a DPhil at Oxford) and grounded in hard truths about the challenges we now face: from rising authoritarianism to declining health and well-being indicators, rampant inequality to ecological annihilation.
PROGRESS is an unflinching examination of today's most pervasive belief. But it also gives us hope that progress could mean something else: ecological restoration, compounding knowledge practices, robust communities, solidarity against greed and corruption. The universe has no moral arc but the one we make.
did-not-finish
September 10, 2025"We will see many examples of the parasitic class in the following chapters, and their favourite bedtime story, the progress narrative formula, in which they are often the heroes." (14%)
Not for me. Mr. McDonald argues that the narrative of progress - that we've advanced from more primitive states, that we're moving along in some (any?) upward trajectory - is simply a lie. A lie foisted upon us by the parasitic classes that rule us - religious, political, national, ideological, economic - in order to profit themselves from our time and labor. But he goes further and makes us all parasites - parasites who are destroying the environmental and ecological systems of the planet we live on. Instead he envisions an anarchist world where we eventually go back to hunter-gatherer societies who do not take more than they need from the environment and worship animals.
"But there is comfort to be found in accepting the reality of the great repopulation of more-than-human life and the spiritual contentment that can emerge from an animistic worldview, comfort even to face the great horror or succour of nothingness in death." (74%)
I did not finish this book. I got about 15% into it and was quickly losing interest. After that I skimmed and skipped around until I became convinced that I'm not interested. It feels like a pretty bleak read. (I received an advance digital copy from the publisher.)
Not for me. Mr. McDonald argues that the narrative of progress - that we've advanced from more primitive states, that we're moving along in some (any?) upward trajectory - is simply a lie. A lie foisted upon us by the parasitic classes that rule us - religious, political, national, ideological, economic - in order to profit themselves from our time and labor. But he goes further and makes us all parasites - parasites who are destroying the environmental and ecological systems of the planet we live on. Instead he envisions an anarchist world where we eventually go back to hunter-gatherer societies who do not take more than they need from the environment and worship animals.
"But there is comfort to be found in accepting the reality of the great repopulation of more-than-human life and the spiritual contentment that can emerge from an animistic worldview, comfort even to face the great horror or succour of nothingness in death." (74%)
I did not finish this book. I got about 15% into it and was quickly losing interest. After that I skimmed and skipped around until I became convinced that I'm not interested. It feels like a pretty bleak read. (I received an advance digital copy from the publisher.)
October 25, 2025
The author analyzes the idea of progress as a narrative formula that has informed many stories people tell themselves and each other about the development of society and civilization for at least five thousand years. But, he shows, both in the times of Sumer and more recently, that has been just that: a formula that promises better things to come while at the same time explaining away and facilitating further exploitation of some humans by others and further destruction of the environment. Of course, this take is a bit schematic—necessarily so, when the entirety of history and the ideas produced throughout millennia are re-read through the lens of a single concept.
The author organizes the entirety of history according to the types of “parasitism” practiced by cultures: contiguous for the empires of the Old World, disparate for the age of European colonialism, and networked for the globalizing economy since the 20th century. He also consistently discusses what he calls “concrete energy capture”—use of resources directly from the environment—and “abstract energy capture,” as in harnessing someone’s energy to produce goods and riches for someone else in enslaved, indentured or waged labor. Have I ever seen this much use of the word "parasitism" outside the biological context since reading early Soviet takes on world politics and the need for worldwide revolution? So as I was reading, I was a bit wary of what would come when I reached his discussion of the Soviet project—would he declare that they had been right all along in their implementation of Marxist ideas? But no, phew, he doesn’t do that. Instead, he looks to what can be done in the future rather than returning to some imagined point in the past when “they already got it right.” Toward the end of the book, the narrative turns into a rallying cry outlining some obvious strategies for developing in a different direction than the current road — one on a collision course with the eventual depletion of environmental resources. I’m saying “obvious” because it’s not really anything that hasn’t been said before, which is probably for the better: it’s always strange when someone describes a problem that has existed for millennia and then suggests he’s the first ever to see a solution, right? I’m sure I’ll be returning to that final section in particular in the future.
The book is also very well written stylistically, combining a solid academic apparatus with none of the frequent obtuseness of academic prose. The primary audience is clearly non-specialists: for example, if you think it’s problematic that public discourse deliberately mixes up the notions of liberalism in the economic and social senses—and then there’s “neoliberalism” somehow related to those on top of everything—this book does a great job of setting everything straight without assuming readers should already know the exact meaning of such terms or that, if they don’t, it’s their own fault for being lost.
Publication date: December 2, 2025.
Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this title through NetGalley. The opinion above is my own.
The author organizes the entirety of history according to the types of “parasitism” practiced by cultures: contiguous for the empires of the Old World, disparate for the age of European colonialism, and networked for the globalizing economy since the 20th century. He also consistently discusses what he calls “concrete energy capture”—use of resources directly from the environment—and “abstract energy capture,” as in harnessing someone’s energy to produce goods and riches for someone else in enslaved, indentured or waged labor. Have I ever seen this much use of the word "parasitism" outside the biological context since reading early Soviet takes on world politics and the need for worldwide revolution? So as I was reading, I was a bit wary of what would come when I reached his discussion of the Soviet project—would he declare that they had been right all along in their implementation of Marxist ideas? But no, phew, he doesn’t do that. Instead, he looks to what can be done in the future rather than returning to some imagined point in the past when “they already got it right.” Toward the end of the book, the narrative turns into a rallying cry outlining some obvious strategies for developing in a different direction than the current road — one on a collision course with the eventual depletion of environmental resources. I’m saying “obvious” because it’s not really anything that hasn’t been said before, which is probably for the better: it’s always strange when someone describes a problem that has existed for millennia and then suggests he’s the first ever to see a solution, right? I’m sure I’ll be returning to that final section in particular in the future.
The book is also very well written stylistically, combining a solid academic apparatus with none of the frequent obtuseness of academic prose. The primary audience is clearly non-specialists: for example, if you think it’s problematic that public discourse deliberately mixes up the notions of liberalism in the economic and social senses—and then there’s “neoliberalism” somehow related to those on top of everything—this book does a great job of setting everything straight without assuming readers should already know the exact meaning of such terms or that, if they don’t, it’s their own fault for being lost.
Publication date: December 2, 2025.
Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this title through NetGalley. The opinion above is my own.
August 14, 2025
Samuel Miller McDonald's Progress is an ambitious book making a strong case for the fact that our understanding of and emphasis of progress as positive and beneficial is actually misplaced and misguided. Pulling together evidence across various fields and across history from antiquity to the present day, there's a lot to consider and this book definitely offers a lot of food for thought in reframing how we view the past, the present and what we should consider for the future. This was a challenging book to read - it's packed with information and details and it seemed repetitive as he hammered home his main points. I appreciate McDonald's different take on progress as a narrative and I can see excerpts being used to foster interesting discussions, but, for me, it was cumbersome and slow to read in parts.
Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the e-arc.
Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the e-arc.
November 23, 2025
Advancement is a driving force. The narratives surrounding progress, which articulate whether a society is moving in a favorable or unfavorable direction, possess significant influence. Progress has been instrumental in urban development, geographical transformation, global exploration, oceanic and spatial discovery, wealth generation, opportunity creation, remarkable innovation, and the dawn of a distinctive era within our planet's 4.5-billion-year history.
However, the contemporary narrative of progress also presents a significant and perilous misconception. It influences our perception of what constitutes progress and rationalizes the actions we undertake to attain it, irrespective of the consequences. We persist in adhering to a collection of myths concerning dominion, growth, extraction, and expansion, which have historically propelled our achievements but now imperil our existence—and that of all species—on a planet facing critical challenges.
Honestly, 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐂𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐲 𝐈𝐭 was an ambitious read for me. In some ways, it was so thought-provoking that I wanted to pause the book and contemplate before discovering more. I have already quoted the author multiple times, as I couldn't help but agree or pose questions about progress and what it truly means.
Author and Geographer Samuel Miller McDonald presents a layered reinterpretation of the foundational stories underpinning contemporary society. He meticulously exposes their detrimental historical trajectory and proposes a crucial alternative. Leveraging extensive interdisciplinary research spanning anthropology, history, philosophy, and geography, McDonald posits that for humanity to flourish, there must be a fundamental deconstruction, reconceptualization, and reestablishment of the definition of progress.
Thank you to Macmillan Publishers for this historically rich ARC and ALC. I so enjoyed that Samuel was the narrator, as his passion radiated throughout. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐂𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐲 𝐈𝐭 is set to publish December 2nd, 2025.
However, the contemporary narrative of progress also presents a significant and perilous misconception. It influences our perception of what constitutes progress and rationalizes the actions we undertake to attain it, irrespective of the consequences. We persist in adhering to a collection of myths concerning dominion, growth, extraction, and expansion, which have historically propelled our achievements but now imperil our existence—and that of all species—on a planet facing critical challenges.
Honestly, 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐂𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐲 𝐈𝐭 was an ambitious read for me. In some ways, it was so thought-provoking that I wanted to pause the book and contemplate before discovering more. I have already quoted the author multiple times, as I couldn't help but agree or pose questions about progress and what it truly means.
Author and Geographer Samuel Miller McDonald presents a layered reinterpretation of the foundational stories underpinning contemporary society. He meticulously exposes their detrimental historical trajectory and proposes a crucial alternative. Leveraging extensive interdisciplinary research spanning anthropology, history, philosophy, and geography, McDonald posits that for humanity to flourish, there must be a fundamental deconstruction, reconceptualization, and reestablishment of the definition of progress.
Thank you to Macmillan Publishers for this historically rich ARC and ALC. I so enjoyed that Samuel was the narrator, as his passion radiated throughout. 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐂𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐲 𝐈𝐭 is set to publish December 2nd, 2025.
Read
December 1, 2025I don’t quite know how to rate this book. I disliked most parts of it, but it’s probably because I was ideologically predisposed to disliking it. Therefore, I don’t feel like I could honestly evaluate it. Those who find the thesis credible may enjoy it immensely; I did not.
October 5, 2025
When I was a kid, I had the same thought many other children did: that clearly South America and Africa connect like a puzzle piece. Somewhere between the fourth and fifth grades we learned about Pangea and continental drift and plate tectonics and whatnot and I and every other child in the world felt vindicated for seeing something so obvious.
A similar phenomenon occurs while reading this book; it always seemed obvious to me that you literally can't get more out of the planet than what is on the planet. No matter how vast our forests, oceans or petroleum reserves are, they all exist on this one world and this one world does not generate these resources as quickly as we can consume them. In the name of progress we have accelerated the consumption of resources on the planet through incredible and ingenious (if incredibly inefficient) developments and technologies that -beyond being unsustainable- have devastated natural ecologies and radically changed the way that humanity interacts with and experiences the world.
McDonald also challenges notions that progress is linear or that we are necessarily moving towards a better, more moral, more enlightened future. Especially in recent years, it has become harder for people to believe that tomorrow will be better than today, and McDonald's observations about the confrontation of parasitism, the effectiveness of rapid vs. incremental change, and the community level organization needed to ensure a better future rather than merely passively hope for one while doing nothing are all insightful, well-supported and well-argued.
Some may find the book a tad bleak, and unlike other popular history or science books, McDonald does not go out of his way to make humorous aphorisms or reference pop culture, so it can make for heavier reading than some might be accustomed to, but it is worth the effort invested. I think a lot of people will read this book, throw up their hands and say "well what can I do about it??" They will be angry at being called parasites and ask why they should give up their luxury goods so that others may not go hungry - I know that most people are not willing to inconvenience themselves for the good of others, let alone make real sacrifices. It is a shame that they are unlikely to read this book, because in many ways this book is for them. Selling the fantasy of utopia at some point in the far-flung future by staying the course heedless of the many warning signs is much easier than selling the reality that if our children's children wish to survive - let alone live a life worth living - we will have to put in some effort. McDonald's rhetoric can be seen to be an abject failure by that perspective, but to me at least, this book doesn't exactly seek to change the reader's mind, merely lay out the facts and establish patterns, and in that it succeeds remarkably.
A similar phenomenon occurs while reading this book; it always seemed obvious to me that you literally can't get more out of the planet than what is on the planet. No matter how vast our forests, oceans or petroleum reserves are, they all exist on this one world and this one world does not generate these resources as quickly as we can consume them. In the name of progress we have accelerated the consumption of resources on the planet through incredible and ingenious (if incredibly inefficient) developments and technologies that -beyond being unsustainable- have devastated natural ecologies and radically changed the way that humanity interacts with and experiences the world.
McDonald also challenges notions that progress is linear or that we are necessarily moving towards a better, more moral, more enlightened future. Especially in recent years, it has become harder for people to believe that tomorrow will be better than today, and McDonald's observations about the confrontation of parasitism, the effectiveness of rapid vs. incremental change, and the community level organization needed to ensure a better future rather than merely passively hope for one while doing nothing are all insightful, well-supported and well-argued.
Some may find the book a tad bleak, and unlike other popular history or science books, McDonald does not go out of his way to make humorous aphorisms or reference pop culture, so it can make for heavier reading than some might be accustomed to, but it is worth the effort invested. I think a lot of people will read this book, throw up their hands and say "well what can I do about it??" They will be angry at being called parasites and ask why they should give up their luxury goods so that others may not go hungry - I know that most people are not willing to inconvenience themselves for the good of others, let alone make real sacrifices. It is a shame that they are unlikely to read this book, because in many ways this book is for them. Selling the fantasy of utopia at some point in the far-flung future by staying the course heedless of the many warning signs is much easier than selling the reality that if our children's children wish to survive - let alone live a life worth living - we will have to put in some effort. McDonald's rhetoric can be seen to be an abject failure by that perspective, but to me at least, this book doesn't exactly seek to change the reader's mind, merely lay out the facts and establish patterns, and in that it succeeds remarkably.
October 2, 2025
This is an ambitious book! McDonald attempts an intellectual tour de force: from prehistoric societies to the Anthropocene, from myth and theology to capitalism and environmental crisis. He doesn’t just critique “progress” as a vague ideal, he traces its evolution and how it shaped institutions, beliefs, hierarchies, and our relationship with nature.
He draws in geography, history, anthropology, and philosophy. He doesn’t just gives us economic data, but myths, religious stories, ecological impacts, cultural evolution.
“Progress” has been one of our most seductive myths—promising salvation, wealth, stability. McDonald squares up to that myth, and shows the social, environmental, and moral costs.
His narrative sometimes moves from plausible historical detail into interpretative leaps but for those interested or concerned with ecological crisis, ethics of development, and cultural narratives, it’s essential reading. It reframes the problem, forces discomfort, and opens space for rethinking.
Makes you wonder if there is a middle path. A kind of progress that retains innovation, art, knowledge, technological advance — but grounded not in extraction and domination, but in relationality, equity, ecological harmony? Can societies realistically change the engine of growth — or are we stuck in a feedback loop of growth = legitimacy? McDonald gives us reasons to hope, but hope alone is not enough; transformation requires institutions, practices, narrative shifts, power change.
This, while being very analytical and academic in structure, is well researched and well written!
He draws in geography, history, anthropology, and philosophy. He doesn’t just gives us economic data, but myths, religious stories, ecological impacts, cultural evolution.
“Progress” has been one of our most seductive myths—promising salvation, wealth, stability. McDonald squares up to that myth, and shows the social, environmental, and moral costs.
His narrative sometimes moves from plausible historical detail into interpretative leaps but for those interested or concerned with ecological crisis, ethics of development, and cultural narratives, it’s essential reading. It reframes the problem, forces discomfort, and opens space for rethinking.
Makes you wonder if there is a middle path. A kind of progress that retains innovation, art, knowledge, technological advance — but grounded not in extraction and domination, but in relationality, equity, ecological harmony? Can societies realistically change the engine of growth — or are we stuck in a feedback loop of growth = legitimacy? McDonald gives us reasons to hope, but hope alone is not enough; transformation requires institutions, practices, narrative shifts, power change.
This, while being very analytical and academic in structure, is well researched and well written!
November 30, 2025
I've read a fair number of these "big picture" books by authors such as Yuval Noah Harari, Steven Pinker and Hans Rosling, and this book is something of a rejoinder to the optimistic views of human "progress" displayed therein (Pinker and Rosling are explicitly called out by McDonald). I personally take the view that arguing about which of these books is correct is besides the point; the important question is whether each author's perspective provides a useful way of understanding the world. I happen to find that each perspective provides considerable insight, although all of the books tend to gloss over inconveniences that may be emphasized in another account. And while Pinker and McDonald may be on opposite poles when it comes to optimism/pessimism, both are highly skeptical of utopian ideologies. While the optimists believe that improving the world's state still requires vigilance and innovation, McDonald is an advocate for what amounts to a revolution.
McDonald's version suggests that man has lived in a degraded state since the agricultural revolution in ancient Mesopotamia, and that our ideologies (theological, nationalistic, and economic) have all been in the service of parasitic extraction of energy (mostly the labor of others) on the behalf of elites. Essentially the masses are placated by visions of progress which make them go along with the elites. If you are going to have a single theory of everything, it's not a bad one. Things really go to hell when humans discover the embedded energy in hydrocarbons, resulting in exploitative factory work and culminating in the current climate crisis.
I think this view is interesting and I'm sure it will be attacked - at times persuasively. Like almost all books of this nature, the final sections which attempt to propose solutions for avoiding or at least mitigating our inevitable decline seem a bit pie-in-the-sky. In a world where even the easy climate mitigations strategies (e.g. increasing vehicle fuel efficiency) are politically unattainable, I don't see us adopting his rather radical back-to-nature ideas (and I'm not even sure they are the right ones). However, his argument that fighting the progress narrative in order to save the planet will at least give our lives meaning (even when much of the fight is unsuccessful) does hold water.
If it isn't clear, I do recommend this book as something that will get you thinking.
McDonald's version suggests that man has lived in a degraded state since the agricultural revolution in ancient Mesopotamia, and that our ideologies (theological, nationalistic, and economic) have all been in the service of parasitic extraction of energy (mostly the labor of others) on the behalf of elites. Essentially the masses are placated by visions of progress which make them go along with the elites. If you are going to have a single theory of everything, it's not a bad one. Things really go to hell when humans discover the embedded energy in hydrocarbons, resulting in exploitative factory work and culminating in the current climate crisis.
I think this view is interesting and I'm sure it will be attacked - at times persuasively. Like almost all books of this nature, the final sections which attempt to propose solutions for avoiding or at least mitigating our inevitable decline seem a bit pie-in-the-sky. In a world where even the easy climate mitigations strategies (e.g. increasing vehicle fuel efficiency) are politically unattainable, I don't see us adopting his rather radical back-to-nature ideas (and I'm not even sure they are the right ones). However, his argument that fighting the progress narrative in order to save the planet will at least give our lives meaning (even when much of the fight is unsuccessful) does hold water.
If it isn't clear, I do recommend this book as something that will get you thinking.
October 15, 2025
It took me quite awhile to read this book. Not because it was uninteresting, but because I needed to read slowly and fully digest the subject material. For me, this was not a book to skim or binge read. I wanted to take my time to understand the information so I could form an educated opinion.
Progress is written in a very academic style. This will not appeal to all readers. He presents history and facts ranging from geography and history to philosophy and religion, tracing the effects of progress on society and cultures. I enjoyed how he presented the facts and then applied them to form an interpretive picture of progress across the centuries.
Very thought provoking. How many millions of people and how many cultures have been decimated and destroyed over the years in the name of progress formulated from greed and dominance? So, so many. What a waste.
I wish humanity tended more towards harmony and building knowledge, rather than dominance and destruction.
This book will have me thinking for a very long time. I'm still going on tangents of reading and research from notes I took while reading. So interesting! It will take me awhile to build my own educated opinion on this, but the journey and learning is the main goal!
I will keep this author on my radar and definitely read more from him!
**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from St Martins Press. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
Progress is written in a very academic style. This will not appeal to all readers. He presents history and facts ranging from geography and history to philosophy and religion, tracing the effects of progress on society and cultures. I enjoyed how he presented the facts and then applied them to form an interpretive picture of progress across the centuries.
Very thought provoking. How many millions of people and how many cultures have been decimated and destroyed over the years in the name of progress formulated from greed and dominance? So, so many. What a waste.
I wish humanity tended more towards harmony and building knowledge, rather than dominance and destruction.
This book will have me thinking for a very long time. I'm still going on tangents of reading and research from notes I took while reading. So interesting! It will take me awhile to build my own educated opinion on this, but the journey and learning is the main goal!
I will keep this author on my radar and definitely read more from him!
**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from St Martins Press. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**
October 21, 2025
𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧:
I like the book cover. It is simple, minimalist, and relevant. The title is straightforward and meaningful.
𝐎𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧:
✓ The book explores how humanity has put the planet at risk in its pursuit of progress and civilisation.
✓ Through this work, Samuel challenges the ideology that separates civilisational growth from environmental well-being and even from humanity itself. Exploitation of nature and violation of humanitarian principles through slavery and genocide have often formed the foundation of societal progress.
✓ Samuel emphasizes the need to change this perception and proposes alternatives while analysing historical developments in depth.
✓ While I do not entirely agree with his interpretations of certain religious aspects, I truly appreciate his courage to address such a vital and thought-provoking subject.
✓ The book delves into themes of ecology and animism, while also discussing systems of hierarchy, modernism, and neoliberalism.
✓ To be honest, it is a deeply insightful book. Even if you do not agree with every argument, you will likely find yourself resonating with most of the ideas presented. It is an important read that encourages reflection and awareness.
✓ I would not recommend it for beginners, as the content is intense, the book is slightly long, and non-readers may find the language, complex. However, for non-fiction readers, especially those interested in history, this is a must-read.
I like the book cover. It is simple, minimalist, and relevant. The title is straightforward and meaningful.
𝐎𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧:
✓ The book explores how humanity has put the planet at risk in its pursuit of progress and civilisation.
✓ Through this work, Samuel challenges the ideology that separates civilisational growth from environmental well-being and even from humanity itself. Exploitation of nature and violation of humanitarian principles through slavery and genocide have often formed the foundation of societal progress.
✓ Samuel emphasizes the need to change this perception and proposes alternatives while analysing historical developments in depth.
✓ While I do not entirely agree with his interpretations of certain religious aspects, I truly appreciate his courage to address such a vital and thought-provoking subject.
✓ The book delves into themes of ecology and animism, while also discussing systems of hierarchy, modernism, and neoliberalism.
✓ To be honest, it is a deeply insightful book. Even if you do not agree with every argument, you will likely find yourself resonating with most of the ideas presented. It is an important read that encourages reflection and awareness.
✓ I would not recommend it for beginners, as the content is intense, the book is slightly long, and non-readers may find the language, complex. However, for non-fiction readers, especially those interested in history, this is a must-read.
September 19, 2025
Thanks to Samuel Miller McDonald, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for access to the Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
In this book the author takes an in-depth review of human progress from ancient cultures through roman times and into today. Throughout the book religion and political systems are highlighted as frequent rationales for human activity, most often targeting growth to the detriment of non-ruling peoples, animals, and the environment. At the end, the author describes some principles and approaches to a new view of progress that is inclusive of all peoples and protective of our environment.
This is not a book for everyone. Written in an academic style and approach, many will find the dense prose and vocabulary challenging. I found many of the arguments insightful and presented with a new perspective but ultimately depressing. And the solutions advocated seem more of the “we should just all be better”, rather than practical, implementable solutions.
In this book the author takes an in-depth review of human progress from ancient cultures through roman times and into today. Throughout the book religion and political systems are highlighted as frequent rationales for human activity, most often targeting growth to the detriment of non-ruling peoples, animals, and the environment. At the end, the author describes some principles and approaches to a new view of progress that is inclusive of all peoples and protective of our environment.
This is not a book for everyone. Written in an academic style and approach, many will find the dense prose and vocabulary challenging. I found many of the arguments insightful and presented with a new perspective but ultimately depressing. And the solutions advocated seem more of the “we should just all be better”, rather than practical, implementable solutions.
November 19, 2025
While the book brings up valid points namely that progress hasn’t been for everyone, it focuses on the negatives and ignores the positives. Progress in the US has been achieved by taking land from the Natives, using slave labour, etc.. Progress has led to global warming and ecological degradation. Economic progress has led to increased inequality. All of these are valid points but what about scientific progress, progress in medicine and hygiene that have increased life expectancy? There is still plenty of poverty in the world but less so than in the past. By only focusing on the negatives, the book loses its objectivity and becomes very repetitive. Moreover the book is written in a very academic style which makes it boring
This book could have been a good book if the author had stayed objective, recognising how much progress had been achieved throughout history but pointing out the excesses and injustice that came along with it.
This book could have been a good book if the author had stayed objective, recognising how much progress had been achieved throughout history but pointing out the excesses and injustice that came along with it.
November 20, 2025
I absolutely loved the way that this author takes sets of data and breaks them apart so they can be understood with full context. I found myself rethinking data points that I believed I had a fairly set view on. Overall, this book as well organized and makes many valuable points.
Big thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for allowing me to enjoy this.
Big thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for allowing me to enjoy this.
September 27, 2025
The author did a lot of research and is very detailed in his analysis. He gives a great argument regarding how we define progress, what has shaped this idea and how it is skewed. Main complaint is that book is too long and too detailed.
October 7, 2025
This book has a provocative premise: What if, for the past 5,000 years, human beings have not made progress? What if things have actually gotten worse?
The author interrogates the major progress myths that have governed western societies, from dominion over other species granted by Abrahamic religions, through the scientific rationality of Enlightenment thought, to manifest destiny, to the 20th-century battle between fascist, socialist, and liberal visions of progress, to billionaire promises of off-world utopias.
This is 'progress' as unrestrained economic growth, development, and expansion. Progress as an instrument of propaganda to ensure mass complacency, obedience, and subservience.
The book is challenging, stirring, and deeply original. Miller McDonald comes from a left-environmental activist background and the moral force of that experience comes through - though the book remains unorthodox in its thinking as the author strives to identify what is true over what is politically accepted.
Some early reviews have accused the book of being doomerist, but its claims are rigorously researched (Miller McDonald did a DPhil at Oxford) and grounded in hard truths about the challenges we now face: from rising authoritarianism to declining health and well-being indicators, rampant inequality to ecological annihilation.
PROGRESS is an unflinching examination of today's most pervasive belief. But it also gives us hope that progress could mean something else: ecological restoration, compounding knowledge practices, robust communities, solidarity against greed and corruption. The universe has no moral arc but the one we make.
The author interrogates the major progress myths that have governed western societies, from dominion over other species granted by Abrahamic religions, through the scientific rationality of Enlightenment thought, to manifest destiny, to the 20th-century battle between fascist, socialist, and liberal visions of progress, to billionaire promises of off-world utopias.
This is 'progress' as unrestrained economic growth, development, and expansion. Progress as an instrument of propaganda to ensure mass complacency, obedience, and subservience.
The book is challenging, stirring, and deeply original. Miller McDonald comes from a left-environmental activist background and the moral force of that experience comes through - though the book remains unorthodox in its thinking as the author strives to identify what is true over what is politically accepted.
Some early reviews have accused the book of being doomerist, but its claims are rigorously researched (Miller McDonald did a DPhil at Oxford) and grounded in hard truths about the challenges we now face: from rising authoritarianism to declining health and well-being indicators, rampant inequality to ecological annihilation.
PROGRESS is an unflinching examination of today's most pervasive belief. But it also gives us hope that progress could mean something else: ecological restoration, compounding knowledge practices, robust communities, solidarity against greed and corruption. The universe has no moral arc but the one we make.
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