Civilized to Death

“Incredible … timely … clarifying.” —Jack Dorsey, cofounder and CEO of Twitter “Engaging, extensively documented, well-organized, and thought provoking.” —Booklist “Entertaining and provocative.” —Publishers Weekly “Often zingy and colorful … Civilized to Death is unquestionably well-timed … Ryan is right to highlight the aspects of modern life that have gone off the rails.” —Undark “[A] prescient book about the nature of progress … Civilized to Death will make you see our so-called progress in a whole new light.” —Book Riot “This book takes on ‘progress’ as a guiding ethos—and does so with gusto.” —The Stranger “It is increasingly clear to many of us that the way we have been living is no longer sustainable, at least as long as we want the earth to outlive us… . Civilized to Death is an important guide in this conversation.” —Psychology Today “A fascinating read.” —Seattle Times“Every great once in a while, a book comes along that makes you rethink everything you thought you knew. Civilized to Death is without question one of them.” —Jesse Bering, PhD, author of The Belief Instinct“Christopher Ryan is one of the most interesting and provocative thinkers of our time. Everyone should read him—you might well disagree but you’ll definitely think differently.” —Johann Hari, New York Times–bestselling author of Lost Connections

Christopher Ryan, PhD, and his work have been featured just about everywhere, including: MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Times of London, Playboy, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, The Atlantic, Outside, El Pais, La Vanguardia, Salon, Seed, and Big Think. A featured speaker from TED to The Festival of Dangerous Ideas at the Sydney Opera House to the Einstein Forum in Pottsdam, Germany, Ryan has consulted at various hospitals in Spain, provided expert testimony in a Canadian constitutional hearing, and appeared in well over a dozen documentary films. The author of Civilized to Death and the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Sex at Dawn, Ryan puts out a weekly podcast, called Tangentially Speaking, featuring conversations with interesting people, ranging from famous comics to bank robbers to drug smugglers to porn stars to authors to plasma physicists.