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Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future Hardcover – October 11, 2016
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It’s all over our televisions, newspapers and the internet. Every day we’re bludgeoned by news of how bad everything is – Brexit, financial collapse, unemployment, poverty, environmental disasters, disease, hunger, war. Indeed, our world now seems to be on the brink of collapse, and yet:
- We’ve made more progress over the last 100 years than in the first 100,000
- 285,000 more people have gained access to safe water every day for the last 25 years
- In the last 50 years world poverty has fallen more than it did in the preceding 500
Contrary to what most of us believe, our progress over the past few decades has been unprecedented. By almost any index you care to identify, things are markedly better now than they have ever been for almost everyone alive.
Examining official data from the United Nations, the World Bank and the World Health Organization, Johan Norberg traces just how far we have come in tackling the issues facing our species. While it’s true that not every problem has been solved, we do now have a good idea of the solutions and we know what it will take to see this progress continue. Counter-intuitive, dramatic and uplifting, Progress is a call for renewed hope in defiance of the doom-mongering of politicians and the media.
- Print length256 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOneworld Publications
- Publication dateOctober 11, 2016
- Dimensions6 x 0.85 x 9.2 inches
- ISBN-101780749503
- ISBN-13978-1780749501
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Editorial Reviews
Review
‘A blast of good sense.’ ― Economist
‘Norberg has a strong case and he makes it with energy and charm. A pertinent book for grumpy times.’ ― Robbie Millen, The Times
'His unfailing optimism and well-argued points generate powerful good-news vibes’. ― Esquire
‘An exhilarating book. With the combination of arresting stories and striking data, Progress will change your understanding about where we’ve come from and where we may be heading.’ -- Steven Pinker, author of The Better Angels of Our Nature
‘Norberg entertainingly presents the case for something every expert knows but most newsreaders will find hard to believe: the world is getting richer, healthier, freer, and more peaceful’. ― Observer
‘Johan Norberg chronicles the still largely unknown fact that humanity is now healthier, happier, cleaner, cleverer, freer and more peaceful than ever before. He also explains why in this superb book.’ -- Matt Ridley, author of The Evolution of Everything
‘At a time of profound pessimism, Johan Norberg is refreshingly, but not glibly, optimistic. His excellent book documents the dramatic improvements in people’s lives and reminds us of the huge potential for further progress – provided we are open to it.’ -- Philippe Legrain, author of European Spring
‘In this brightly written, upbeat book, the Swedish author blends facts, anecdotes, and official statistics to describe “humanity's triumph” in achieving the present unparalleled level of global living standards...While acknowledging the mayhem, hunger, and poverty still facing much of the world, the author remains optimistic that human ingenuity will prevail in shaping the future. A refreshingly rosy assessment of how far many of us have come from the days when life was uniformly nasty, brutish, and short.’ ― Kirkus
‘Excellent…Norberg’s book comprehensively documents the myriad ways the state of humanity has vastly improved over the past couple of centuries.’ ― Reason
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Oneworld Publications (October 11, 2016)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1780749503
- ISBN-13 : 978-1780749501
- Item Weight : 1.05 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.85 x 9.2 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #231,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #214 in General Anthropology
- #5,655 in World History (Books)
- #9,270 in Politics & Government (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Johan Norberg is an author, lecturer and documentary filmmaker, born in Sweden. He received his M.A. in the History of Ideas from the University of Stockholm, and is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington D.C. and the European Centre for International Political Economy in Brussels.
Norberg's books have been published in more than 25 countries. His Progress (2016) was a book of the year in The Economist and The Guardian. For his work, Norberg has received several awards, including the Distinguished Sir Antony Fisher Memorial Award, the Walter Judd Freedom Award, the Julian Simon Memorial Award, and the gold medal from the German Hayek Stiftung, that year shared with Margaret Thatcher.
"A blast of good sense"
The Economist
"A prophet of anti-pessimism"
The Guardian
"Norberg has a strong case and he makes it with energy and charm"
The Times
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Customers find the book fascinating, amazing, and important. They describe the insight as enlightening, inspiring, and positive. Readers appreciate the pacing, saying it provides perspective and reminds them of the whole picture.
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Customers find the book fascinating, amazing, and important. They say it reads wonderfully in a lively yet to-the-point language style. Readers also mention it's well-written and well thought out.
"...: Ten Reasons To Look Forward To The Future" is a must-read work of such staggering scope in so many ways and on so many levels that I scarcely..." Read more
"...Increasing wealth has benefited the environment.• Literacy is widespread.• People are increasingly free of arbitrary authority.•..." Read more
"...It is a very accessible, interesting and quick read and is great for anyone who is curious about learning more and putting things in perspective...." Read more
"Another excellent summary, in the tradition of Julian Simon, Stephen Pinker, Bjorn Lomberg, and Matt Ridley, explaining that the pessimists are..." Read more
Customers find the book enlightening, inspiring, and positive. They say it's a breath of fresh thinking and changes their view of the world. Readers also mention the book is an intellectual pick-me-up and renews their faith in humanity.
"...There are a lot of great facts with citations to read more about areas you may want to explore more...." Read more
"...It is a very accessible, interesting and quick read and is great for anyone who is curious about learning more and putting things in perspective...." Read more
"...This book is not only an intellectual pick-me-up, but was also written as a warning - it would be a terrible mistake to take the progress we have..." Read more
"...It makes for better copy, drama and greater interest…And it sells!..." Read more
Customers find the book provides perspective and reminds them of the whole picture. They say it provides good inputs for discussion with those around them. Readers also mention the arguments are well-researched, balanced, and convincing.
"...story of our era is that we are witnessing the greatest improvement in global living standards ever to take place.” — Norberg..." Read more
"...War and violence blight fewer lives.• Increasing wealth has benefited the environment.• Literacy is widespread.•..." Read more
"...story of our era is that we are witnessing the greatest improvement in global living standards… ever...." Read more
"...and a lot of politicians with a flood of well-researched and well-balanced arguments...." Read more
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So . . . let’s talk Star Trek.
It’s become commonplace to read about many of Star Trek’s technological innovations coming true now, 200 years before the future depicted in the show. But what if some of Star Trek’s cultural predictions started coming true now? What if the fundamental problems of human survival were being solved — not 200 years from now — but today?
What if poverty, for instance — or hunger — or pollution — was being eradicated right now instead of 200 years from now?
“Despite what we hear on the news and from many authorities, the great story of our era is that we are witnessing the greatest improvement in global living standards ever to take place.” — Norberg
Today, people like President Trump paint a horrific picture of the world because they want you to be terrified of it. “American carnage”, anyone? But Johan Norberg presents the facts that overwhelmingly support the proposition that the human race is not just surviving but thriving. And not only are we not destroying each other, by and large — violence is actually at an all-time low — but we’re also not destroying the planet.
Tired of the dystopian Malthusian pessimism you’ve been hearing for the past several decades? If Norberg is right, politicians on both left and right will have a harder time finding crises to exploit. Everyone who’s worried about the rise of emotionalism on both the left and the right should read this book.
Beginning with hunger, Norberg takes ten major components of human progress and illuminates every aspect of them, showing just where they come from and the impact they have had — and are continuing to have. It is almost as though Norberg has taken the classic essay, I, Pencil, and expanded it to encompass the whole of human history. The implications of the facts that Norberg leads the reader through are kaleidoscopic and breathtaking. In chapter after chapter, Norberg shows us how the human race is solving its greatest historical challenges — not in some far off future, but right now, before our eyes — not those of our children or grandchilren! And not just in the “privileged”, most technologically advanced societies, but everywhere. The number of people around the world who are now thriving that would have faced certain starvation and death just fifty years ago is stunning. Back then, pundits were predicting widespread famine on a global scale. Since then, the opposite has happened! And instead of being overwhelmed by a population explosion, people everywhere are having less children because more of them actually survive now.
Norberg makes it clear that private property rights have been just as important in motivating farmers to be more productive as advances in agricultural technology have been — even in China, where local farmers defied the Communist Party to work their own land and became so successful that the Party endorsed the farmers’ reforms. Within two years, the communes of the “Great Leap Forward” were gone and productivity skyrocketed. No longer did farmers have to roam the countryside begging for food. It must be noted here that Progress is not for the squeamish — Norberg does not shy away from reminding us of what it was like for past generations to live through times of crop failures and the resulting famines — down to and including cannibalism.
Progress shows that a future free of poverty, hunger and pollution is not only possible, but happening right now — and it’s because of individual rights and economic freedom, not the socialism of Star Trek. Progress makes it clear that the reason why poverty was endemic for so much of human history was the absence of freedom for so much of human history.
Progress is not a call to complacency. The progress we enjoy today comes from a very real expansion of freedom around the world. That didn’t happen by itself and it won’t continue to happen unless we keep working to see that it does continue. The point is, our efforts are paying off and that is why we need to keep working on these issues. People will have better lives if we continue to uphold their right to live their lives as they see fit. It may seem like a Sisyphean effort in a time when authoritarian doomsayers are using emotion in a desperate bid to distract people from the actual facts to try to make us turn away from freedom. But, in Progress, Johan Norberg demonstrates that there may actually be light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, there are real problems in the world. There always have been and always will be. But problems will always have solutions. That is an actual fact.
Progress is concrete evidence that the future is now and it can and will get even better — but only so long as we continue to work to see that it does. Read it!
This book was written specifically for someone like me. I sped through it and plan to go back over my notes and highlights. There are a lot of great facts with citations to read more about areas you may want to explore more.
That being said, I knocked it down one star because there’s usually a page or two of each chapter that feels like facts recited one after another, without transition sentences, and it can become tedious reading these portions. Even in those sections lots of fascinating facts and stats!
Drawing on a variety of social science data, Norberg points to ten ways the world has progressed over the last three centuries:
• Food is plentiful and cheap.
• Clean water and good sanitation are increasingly available.
• Life expectancy is longer.
• Poverty has fallen dramatically.
• War and violence blight fewer lives.
• Increasing wealth has benefited the environment.
• Literacy is widespread.
• People are increasingly free of arbitrary authority.
• Equality is increasingly experienced and demanded.
None of this denies specific counterexamples, of course. Hunger, pollution, terrorism, and poverty are facts of life for many throughout the world. Still, in historical perspective as well as in absolute terms, these ills are on the decline.
Take extreme poverty, for example. Norberg writes:
"…In 1981, fifty-four per cent of the world lived in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank. This already marks an historic achievement. According to an ambitious attempt to measure poverty over the long run, with a $2 a day threshold for extreme poverty, adjusted for purchasing power in 1985, ninety-four per cent of the world’s population lived in extreme population in 1820, eighty-two per cent in 1910 and seventy-two percent in 1950.
"But in the last few decades things have really begun to change. Between 1981 and 2015 the proportion of low- and middle-income countries suffering from extreme poverty was reduced from fifty-four percent to twelve per cent….
"…By all our best estimates, global poverty has been reduced by more than one percentage point annually for three decades."
The next time you and your friends debate income inequality, keep that statistic in mind. Yes, there is income inequality in the world, but the floor of that inequality is no longer extreme poverty for the vast majority of the world’s population.
That’s good news, right? Of course it is! And it’s a reason—along with other improvements in the material conditions of humanity—to give thanks at this time of year.
Top reviews from other countries
Oui l'humanite va de mieux en mieux, et cela fait du bien de pouvoir apprécier toutes ces évolutions sur la base de nombreux faits et chiffres.







