The Progress Trap - by Ben Cobley (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

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.

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.

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.

Review Quotes

"This book is a brilliant exposé of the delusions and authoritarianism of modern progressivism. I heartily recommend it."
Ed West, author of the Wrong Side of History, substack

"Outstanding in its verve, originality and coherence, Cobley's critique of the authoritarianism implicit in modern progressive politics is a tour-de-force."
Robert Tombs, author of The English and their History

"After The Tribe, this is another triumph. The Progress Trap not only diagnoses progressive pathologies but it suggests intelligent ways to respond to them. Delightfully, in revealing their errors and the unintended consequences of their dreams, Cobley shows that he knows progressives better than they know themselves."
William Clouston, leader of the Social Democratic Party

"The Progress Trap is vital reading for anyone trying to make sense of culture, politics and society. Cobley's provocative and engaging analysis challenges readers to rethink their assumptions about the past, present and future."
Joanna Williams, author of How Woke Won: The Elitist Movement That Threatens Democracy, Tolerance and Reason

"Cobley deftly rips away the fig leaf of "neutral" expertise and "compassionate, forward-looking" moral naturalness which progressive elites in our institutions use to conceal their agenda. He combines his trademark attention to spotting the needles in our daily media haystack with a focused lens drawn from a deep reservoir of theoretical and historical reading. From government to corporations, activists to bureaucrats, artists to academics, The Progress Trap pulls back the curtain marked "progress" to reveal the authoritarian false promise of progressive modernism."
Eric Kaufmann, author of Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution

About the Author