Have we learnt the lessons of the past - or will we be next? Many of the great ruins that grace the deserts and jungles of the earth are monuments to civilisations which fell victim to their own success: from Easter Island's monolithic wilderness to the perpetual silence of the Mayan ruins and ultimately to today's melting ice capsand growing ozone hole, the cycle has continually repeated itself across the years."Unfailingly provocative and scarily persuasive." Scotsman "The author sifts the findings of archaeology and anthropology with thoughtful grace to build a potent argument." Guardian "I was thoroughly shaken up by Ronald Wright's A Short History of Progress, a brilliant analysis of everything humanity has done to ruin itself down the ages." Jan Morris, Independent "Wise, timely and brilliant." Globe and Mail.