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Civilized to Death

The Price of Progress

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Civilized to Death

Written by: Christopher Ryan
Narrated by: Christopher Ryan
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About this listen

The New York Times best-selling 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.

©2019 Christopher Ryan (P)2019 Simon & Schuster
Anthropology Biological Sciences Nature & Ecology Philosophy Science World

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Must Raed

An absolute must read of you want answers or to know where to find answers on what is best for humans.

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A depressing reality we all face

A closer look at the misconceptions of hunter gatherer tribes showed how we lost connection to our basic human needs. This is a book stating the facts and not a solution to the problems we will all soon face.

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Reframed civilization

Loved that it was read by the author, adds character to the book, I recommend.

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We have a chance

Very well put summarize on the history of how we got in this mess and how our ways of living made us the cancer of the earth. We still stand a chance to stay in the game thanks to our symbiotic partners <the plants> despite our turbulent love/hate relationship with them. Shout out to well reflected and evolved ideas inspired by the bard Terence McKenna.

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Amazing ideas about humanity, an good read

I absolutely love the concept and some of the main points about what we can learn about human happiness from pre civilization peoples. What left me wanting more was that the booked seemed more like an essay trying to make a case with several points (well supported but shallow) instead of really developing out the concepts and building out what we can actually learn. It worked in the sense that passionately exploring the thoughts and concepts now, but hopefully one day there will be a second book from this author more on 'and what this all means for you and for the world' where it explores implementing lessons learned into our lives. Basically a whole book on the last chapter. Anyways,well worth reading either way and extremely thought provoking!
(edit: I started listening to his podcast and for a different book the author gives a very compelling reason why he isn't prescriptive and deliberately hasn't done the stuff I was hoping for... I appreciate that! )

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everyone needs to hear this

life changing book with profound implications for living in the modern world, extremely well articulated points that shine a light on civilization that desperately needs to be looked at

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Eye opening review of current times

"Everything is amazing, and no one is happy."
-Louis CK

Dr. Chris Ryan takes a critical look at the direction that humanity is heading in and the collective story that we tell ourselves (or rather has been told to us) he refers to as the "Narative of perpetual progress".
I dont agree with everything he says in the book, but the evidence he presents here should not be overlooked or ignored.

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Pulls back the veil on what our species is

It's easy to believe the propaganda that tells us each shiny new thing we see is a sign that now is the best time to be alive. This book questions the assumptions behind our beliefs about civilization. This book paints a clear picture of where we are, where we've been and why more of what we're currently doing won't make things better.

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Everything I expected and more

Christopher Ryan has it all together. I long to live the tribal life. Thanks Dr. Ryan, this book has really given me some perspective

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So glad he read his own book!

I found this a great book overall. The audio quality on the other hand was ridiculous.

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