Progreso: 10 razones para mirar al futuro con optimismo (Juan de… (utgåvan 2017)

An excellent book. When the world looks dark, it is nice to know all of the things we are doing right! ( )

A book focusing on major trends that have improved peoples' lives for the better is a great idea especially in a time of doom and gloom perpetuated by the media. However, this book also has way too much over-generalization and banality which prevent it from effectively make any of its points. Norberg uses nine major trends that he sees as having improved over the past few hundred years as evidence that life is getting better even if we don't see it on a day to day basis. These trends on topics such as Freedom, Hunger, Poverty and Environment are mostly filled with some World Bank statistics, a few anecdotes and some personal boosterism. For me the most galling was he (and apparently his editor) allowed this book to go to publication talking about atmospheric "CO²" instead of "CO₂" which makes me question his research and logic both in this chapter as well as in the rest of the book. I appreciate the idea of showing optimism on a macro level and the emphasis of the importance of economic growth but as a whole this book is too oversimplistic and lacking any kind of rigor to be worth recommending. ( )

one of these rightt-wing books that actually makes some sense ( )

Given the current barrage of negative politics and doom-and-gloom news, this book is as refreshing as it is inspiring. Norberg presents a compelling case that our world is as great as it's ever been, with plenty of hope for an even more amazing future. For ten key dimensions, he shows how the quality of our life has improved by orders of magnitude, often with remarkable acceleration in just the past few decades. We live longer, far fewer people starve, and the world is freer. Most forms of pollution are past peak levels, and enhanced farming productivity has saved lives without causing the population explosion and subsequent starvation disaster Malthus anticipated. This is a good book and now is a great time to read it. ( )

Not a bad read at all. My wife gave me this book and cautioned that the author was right wing,
He is not too bad and the final chapter which sums up this stuff well is a good lesson on how the news works. The media only like bad stories and so do we. He cites chapter and verse on how things have improved over the years. He is right but I already knew that, inasmuch as the years since the industrial revolution have seen all of our gains per person. We will probably destroy the planet soon so as a geezer I am happy. ( )