{"product_id":"the-progress-trap-ben-cobley-9781509567621","title":"The Progress Trap: The Modern Left and the False Authority of History","description":"The idea of progress, one of the animating ideas of Western civilization, has now gone global. From Marxism and neoliberalism to today's mutant identity politics, it offers a framework of knowledge and confidence: an assurance that things will get better and that history is on our side. However, in doing this it creates a form of authority that is simultaneously imaginary and dishonest, resting on confidence in a future that is really contingent and unknowable.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In The Progress Trap, Ben Cobley looks at this progressive mindset as a form of power, conferring a right to act and control others. 'Change', 'transformation' and the 'new' are the superior values, meaning destruction of the old: people, cultures and nature. It is a trap into which nearly all of us fall at times, so attractive are its stories and familiar its techniques.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Hard-hitting but thoughtful, the book is a meditation on the sinister consequences of the progressive way of being: for ourselves, for our democracy, for our art and for the pursuit of real knowledge.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ben Cobley\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1509567623\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781509567621\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Polity Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/28\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Ben Cobley","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46526661722367,"sku":"9781509567621","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_ac74f719-6126-422b-b508-19203c66f637.jpg?v=1737556810","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-progress-trap-ben-cobley-9781509567621","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}