Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress Hardcover – 3 Oct. 2019

I listen to Tangentially Speaking, the author’s podcast, so that very probably makes me bias, but nevertheless I feel compelled to leave a review…This book lends validation to my own feelings & experience, feelings that were very probably suppressed as I was growing up. Society tends to benefit at the expense of the individual, and functions on the assumption that money and time are somewhat interchangeable. Personally, I’ve never considered that a very good deal.Subjugation starts with compulsory ‘education’ and carries on until we’re 65. That’s potentially the whole of our productive life. Our one & only life.Anyway, I agree, wholeheartedly, with the author’s sentiments, sentiments that are presented in a very articulate, and often very amusing, manner.In fact, and I know this probably sounds a bit much, I actually found the book to be consolatory

Outstanding book... probably top 5 all time for me. Makes you look twice at how we structure our modern lives.As a species we have it far from worked out...

This book is a great read and the ideas are thought-proving to the extreme. It sounds exaggerated to call any book life-changing, but this one surely merits the term.It will do for your idea of civilisation what Sex at Dawn did for sexuality.

It was as if I had written this book myself, I couldnt agree more with what the author is trying to convey. We are on a train thats going to be derailed unless we go back to our nature that we have long since lost.

Super enjoyable, super interesting. The recommended reading section will keep me going for a while! Many thanks to the Author :)

I do not agree with everything outlined in this book but it passes the test of challenging your mind - with merit

Great read. Only problem is pages 242 to 257 appear to be missing.

I read this on a recommendation but quickly found myself skimming it wondering if it would reach beyond the obvious. The primary discussion of the book relates to how the woes of modern civilization itself didn't exist prior to modern civilization itself. If that doesn't strike you immediately unhelpful then read on for confirmation of your suspicion. After establishing that modern civilization is in ways at odds to our wellbeing (who knew?!) the rousing conclusion is this: maybewe should restructuree hierarchical organizations, employ green energy, and incentivize not having children. Revolutionary. Yes the solution to a civilization at odds with our nature is to deincentivize our basic drive to reproduce. Perfectly in line with the thesis...There is a sense that this book is simply an outlet for the authors angst about the world. That's ok but ultimately criticism is cheap and the hard bit is offering solutions. That would be why the problems are problems... they don't have solutions yet. I really wish I could be less sharp but I've grown pretty tired of books leading you on with something that could have been summarised in a few pages.

I spent a wonderfull time reading this book, really enjoyed it. It is written in very simple terms that I guess everybody can understand, no real backgrownd on any science needed, but illustrative from the science point of view. It's really funny, with good sense of humor in illustrating how absurd the world we live in, that we've made, is. Totally recomended.

Such a good writer. His first book greatly deviated my opinion on the world. This one, even more so. I think this is a very important book. Same topic as Sapiens, but more so an opinion piece and shorter and easier. I wish all people could read. Our world would be on a better footing with this information.

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Ryan's writing is intriguing and entertaining. I feel smarter for picking this book up and was captivated the whole way through. A very fun read that I'll definitely be recommending to family and friends!

Chris makes a good argument for changing the direction we are heading as a species. Very well written and thought provoking.

A very well written and persuasive book. Highly recommended.

Very good book, really makes you think!

For the reason above, I can't.

Great book. I recommend reading it whether you are a listener of Christopher Ryan's podcast or not. If you're not, Civilized To Death assumes no prior knowledge and lays out its argument and evidence from the ground up. And, depending on how much of the ideas in the book you've encountered before, you might find it completely upends how you see the world. If you are a regular listener of the podcast, you'll find a lot of familiar ideas, but what's different here is that all the ideas are systematically organized, fully fleshed out, and all the names of researchers and historians and the names of books and research papers, etc, which fly by when you're listening to a podcast and are hard to catch, are spelled out, with pages of notes at the end of the book with all the references so you can check the sources for yourself or learn more about any of the concepts in the book.So what is the book about? Well, if you've ever wondered about this seeming paradox, that we live in an age of space age wonders -- we can go to the moon and all have supercomputers in our pockets -- and yet, it somehow still feels cold and meaningless, like there's a nutrient missing, that as our technology advances, life should be getting better and better, yet, rather than descending down towards zero, rates of depression and anxiety are actually going up (and lest you think that this is simply a change in measurement and reporting, actual suicides are going up as well), and that our efforts to find solutions, such as our society's political discourse, seems the flounder all over the place and always miss the mark, as if everyone trying to talk about our issues can only draw from a limited, boxed-in set of ideas, this book is for you. The central premise of the book, which explains these mysteries, is that we humans are the only species that has domesticated ourselves. We all live in what is essentially a zoo -- a world built for us by other humans -- instead of living in the natural world like animals. Everything from the food we eat to the houses we live in to the social institutions that shape our lives to the electronic communications systems that form so much of our waking life experience these days all follow designs and rules invented by other humans, much as how zoo animals live in a world that is totally built and controlled by the zookeepers. If it was a perfect zoo, with a built environment that suited our species perfectly, this wouldn't be a problem, but it is a very imperfect zoo, and the mismatch explains the ailments listed above. So as not to spoil any of the surprises in the book (and there will be a few, I can pretty much guarantee, even if you are already familiar with ideas from psychology, anthropology, and archaeology) and to keep this review short and to the point, I'll just say that Christopher Ryan pokes and prods the zoo cages to see what they're all about, and also delves very deeply into the question of, "What kind of animal is the human species?" Human nature probably isn't what you think it is, because the zoo itself, which we call "civilization", feeds us completely wrong information about who we are, sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes because the wrong story serves the interest of "civilization" better. If you want to know who we really are, and what the evidence is, read this book.The book is clear and fast-paced, and even though it references a lot of science, it never gets bogged down in details or scientific jargon. All the ideas are presented directly (with occasional humor) and in a way accessible to everyone. You'll probably find you zip through the book in a matter of days, but the ideas will stay with you and you'll think about them for years to come.

Chris has done a wonderful job of delicately explaining the precarious position we humans have found ourselves in after almost 2 million years of evolution, and particularly since the dawn of the modern era ~10,000 years ago. In a time when we are told that we have it better than ever, there is strong evidence, laid out in a very well organized manner in this book, that this isn't the case. From modern diseases that cropped up after agriculture, to things like stress, anxiety, isolation/loneliness- these things simply didn't exist in the premodern era. Sure, it wasn't like people lived immortal lives completely devoid of worry or care, but they worked way less, loved way more, and were generally more free than the freest "civilized" person alive in the modern era.Chris pulls no punches in letting us know why we should question the dogma of progress. Far from being the liturgical equivalent of a buzzkill, this book is as entertaining as it is enlightening.By cleverly injecting wit at appropriate times, Chris has a wonderful way of softening the blow of truth that he has laid at our feet. At the very least, you will come away with a deeper appreciation for nature, a more compassionate view of our fellow humans running around in the modern zoo of society, and less of an attachment to the frivolous trappings of a society telling us we are not enough. I cannot recommend this book enough!

The ills of society are easily identified, but society won’t fess up. Fortunately for us, anthropologist Christopher Ryan decided he’d had enough of the whitewashing. His latest book describes why the world we live in is not in alignment with our true nature. Witty and enlightening, this book will open your eyes and make you appreciate your true nature and your better angels. Thank you, Chris.

This book is something I will revisit for years to come. It was difficult to put down. It challenges concepts and notions that shed light on why so many of us in the industrialized world feel unsatisfied even though we have such a materialistically comfortable life.If you were going to read one book this year, this is it.

The author starts with the premise that we can't have infinite growth in a finite universe. A good start. He then goes through all of society's ills that progress has brought pointing out how we have lost our humanity in the name of perpetual progress. He questions whether all of our "stuff" has really benefited us as humans. For the most part I agree with his opinions about our progress and like him question it's value, but he lost me with his claims about our ancestors. He claims that the hunters and gatherers that predated civilization were happier more content and led a more satisfying life than we do today.A ridiculous theory. I often think of the good old days with a sense of nostalgia, sometimes thinking about what it was like before electricity the internal combustion engine and gunpowder. I even think about biblical times. But of course we have knowledge of the civilized past through history,writing archaeology etc. This author attempts to compare what goes on in the head of a person today with what went on in the heads of our ancestors more than 10,000 years ago. Unlike us he claims they were peaceful, loving, free of greed, lust, envy and all the evils of modern society. And how does he know? He doesn't . He ignores so much of our behavior that is hard wired and doesn't take into consideration the genes we share with the foragers. He has fantasized a paradise for our prehistory brethern.

Most of what we are taught as Americans is a fabrication meant for us to submit to the wills of the machine that is capitalism.

This is a fascinating rabbit hole that makes complete sense to me and will inevitably offend many people. There seems to be a cult-like bias for people to believe that the system they are born into happens to be the be greatest thing ever. Whether its their race, religion, nation, or operating system people seem unable to stop repeating the mantra that their team is the best long enough to take an honest assessment of the evidence. The arguments and evidence presented in this book undermine the classical assumption that an agrarian based human organizational system is a superior form of existence. Like the proposition that their invisible man in the sky might not be real, this book will cause a lot of people to react as though they personally have been attacked.As I learned how common War, genocide, and injustice is throughout history I always assumed that the world's evils stem from the greed evidently inherent in human nature. I find this book very optimistic because it indirectly argues that human nature isn't the problem, the problem is actually the warping of human nature by the recent introduction of civilization which rewards greed and creates a gollum-like spectrum of people obsessed with hording preciouses.Like a gay Republican who is born again, Sex at Dawn and Civilized to Death has renewed my faith in humanity.