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Book Cover for: Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress, Christopher Ryan

Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress

Christopher Ryan

Paperback
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The New York Times bestselling coauthor of Sex at Dawn explores the ways in which "progress" has perverted the way we live--how we eat, learn, feel, mate, parent, communicate, work, and die--in this "engaging, extensively documented, well-organized, and thought-provoking" (Booklist) book.Most of us have instinctive evidence the world is ending--balmy December days, face-to-face conversation replaced with heads-to-screens zomboidism, a world at constant war, a political system in disarray. We hear some myths and lies so frequently that they feel like truths: Civilization is humankind's greatest accomplishment. Progress is undeniable. Count your blessings. You're lucky to be alive here and now. Well, maybe we are and maybe we aren't. Civilized to Death counters the idea that progress is inherently good, arguing that the "progress" defining our age is analogous to an advancing disease. Prehistoric life, of course, was not without serious dangers and disadvantages. Many babies died in infancy. A broken bone, infected wound, snakebite, or difficult pregnancy could be life-threatening. But ultimately, Christopher Ryan questions, were these pre-civilized dangers more murderous than modern scourges, such as car accidents, cancers, cardiovascular disease, and a technologically prolonged dying process? Civilized to Death "will make you see our so-called progress in a whole new light" (Book Riot) and adds to the timely conversation that "the way we have been living is no longer sustainable, at least as long as we want to the earth to outlive us" (Psychology Today). Ryan makes the claim that we should start looking backwards to find our way into a better future.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
  • Publish Date: Aug 11st, 2020
  • Pages: 304
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.30in - 5.40in - 0.80in - 0.55lb
  • EAN: 9781451659115
  • Categories: • Anthropology - Cultural & Social• Social• Life Sciences - Human Anatomy & Physiology

About the Author

Ryan, Christopher: - Christopher Ryan, PhD, and his work have been featured just about everywhere, including: MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Times of London, Playboy, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Outside, El Pais, La Vanguardia, Salon, Seed, and Big Think. A featured speaker from TED to The Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House to the Einstein Forum in Pottsdam, Germany, Ryan has consulted at various hospitals in Spain, provided expert testimony in a Canadian constitutional hearing, and appeared in well over a dozen documentary films. The author of Civilized to Death and the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Sex at Dawn, Ryan puts out a weekly podcast, called Tangentially Speaking, featuring conversations with interesting people, ranging from famous comics to bank robbers to drug smugglers to porn stars to authors to plasma physicists.

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Book Cover for: Blackjack: Trial By Fire, Trial By ice, Christopher Ryan
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What people are saying

Mentioner image for: Thomas Kevin
Thomas Kevin
@Tom83479541
1 year

retired elem school Teacher...Different strokes for different folks, 🌈out loud ally, social justice, baseball. I miss Steve Goodman n John Lewis ‘bout everday.

Ya gotta read “Civilized To Death: The Price Of Progress” by Chris Ryan! It’s a life-changing read. https://t.co/OfeRD5QVEr

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Mentioner image for: Lora Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Lora Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
@loracentre
2 years

Innovation and Entrepreneurship Academy offering accredited courses

Book Review: Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress by Christopher Ryan https://t.co/RFx5YwLns2 via @rochemamabolo

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Mentioner image for: Dan Brooks
Dan Brooks
@DangerBrooks
2 years

Dan Brooks is a writer.

@collnsmith One of the interesting/unfalsifiable arguments in Civilized to Death by Christopher Ryan is that selfish or aggressive people in hunter-gatherer bands were likely to be nudged off a cliff, and selfish behavior only started conferring a competitive advantage after agriculture.

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Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

"Incredible . . . timely . . . clarifying." --Jack Dorsey, cofounder and CEO of Twitter

"Engaging, extensively documented, well-organized, and thought provoking." --Booklist

"Entertaining and provocative." --Publishers Weekly

"Often zingy and colorful . . . Civilized to Death is unquestionably well-timed . . . Ryan is right to highlight the aspects of modern life that have gone off the rails." --Undark

"[A] prescient book about the nature of progress . . . Civilized to Death will make you see our so-called progress in a whole new light." --Book Riot

"This book takes on 'progress' as a guiding ethos--and does so with gusto." --The Stranger

"It is increasingly clear to many of us that the way we have been living is no longer sustainable, at least as long as we want the earth to outlive us. . . . Civilized to Death is an important guide in this conversation." --Psychology Today

"A fascinating read." --Seattle Times

"Every great once in a while, a book comes along that makes you rethink everything you thought you knew. Civilized to Death is without question one of them." --Jesse Bering, PhD, author of The Belief Instinct
"Christopher Ryan is one of the most interesting and provocative thinkers of our time. Everyone should read him--you might well disagree but you'll definitely think differently." --Johann Hari, New York Times-bestselling author of Lost Connections

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