Archaeology, says Ronald Wright – who began as an archaeologist – “is perhaps the best tool we have for looking ahead” because it allows us to see patterns in the rise and fall of human societies over the ages. It tells us “that people all over the world, time and again, have made similar advances and mistakes.”
When societies fail – and almost all do, sooner or later – the story is remarkably consistent, as Wright points out in A Short History of Progress (2004). We see failing societies “sticking to entrenched beliefs and practices, robbing the future to pay the present, spending the last reserves of natural capital on a reckless binge of excessive wealth and glory.” People are “seduced by a kind of progress that becomes a mania, an 'ideological pathology.'”
All of which sounds painfully familiar. For Wright, the past is a mirror that vividly reflects our most pressing contemporary concerns.
Ronald Wright – novelist, essayist, historian and philosopher – was born in London, England in 1948 to Canadian and British parents. He received his BA and MA from Cambridge University, and then traveled to Canada to continue his studies at the University of Calgary. He never completed his Ph.D., though the university awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1996. He did field work in Latin America and Africa, and released two records of traditional Inca music.
He is the author of nine books, which are published in 16 languages. His first was Cut Stones and Crossroads: A Journey in Peru (1984). Its successors include the monumental Stolen Continents: Conquest and Resistance in the Americas, which won the Gordon Montador Award and was chosen as book of the year by the Independent and the Sunday Times. His first novel, A Scientific Romance, won the 1997 David Higham Prize for Fiction. In all, Wright is the author of nine books, including the 2004 CBC Massey Lectures, A Short History of Progress, which won the Libris Award for Nonfiction Book of the Year and was subsequently produced as a documentary film with Martin Scorsese as its executive producer. Wright is also a compelling and well-regarded speaker.
A memorable passage in his most recent book, What Is America? A Short History of the New World Order encapsulates his prescription for human survival: “We must opt for quality over quantity, thrift over opulence, right over might, stabiity instead of reckless change. These aims will be extremely hard to fulfill: they require a new politics, a new economics and a new demographics, all cutting against the grain of human nature. But there is no other choice.”
Books
- Cut Stones and Crossroads: A Journey in Peru, 1984, Penguin Books
- On Fiji Islands, 1986, Penguin Books
- Time Among the Maya, 1990, Penguin Books
- Stolen Continents: The "New World" Through Indian Eyes, 1992, Penguin Books
- Home and Away, 1994, Vintage Canada
- A Scientific Romance, 1998, Vintage Canada
- Henderson's Spear, 2002, Vintage Canada
- A Short History of Progress, 2004, Anansi Press
- What is America?: A Short History of the New World Order, 2008, Knopf Canada
Awards
- Non-Fiction Book of the Year, CBA Libris Award, for A Short History of Progress, 2005.
- Finalist, British Columbia Achievement Foundation Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, for A Short History of Progress, 2005.
- Sunday Times (UK) Book of the Year, for A Scientific Romance, 1998.
- Winner of The David Higham Fiction Prize for A Scientific Romance, 1997.
- Honorary Doctorate, University of Calgary, 1996.
- Globe and Mail Editor's Choice, for A Scientific Romance, 1995.
- Gordon Montador Award, for Stolen Continents, 1993.
- Nominated, Author of the Year, CBA Libris Award, for Stolen Continents, 1992.
- CBC Literary Award, for "Going to the Wall", 1991.
- Shortlisted, Trillium Book Award, for Time Among the Maya, 1990.
- Canadian Science Writers' Association Award, for "The Lamanai Enigma", 1986.
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