55. Ibid., p. 142.
56. Robert Bryce, Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper (New York: PublicAffairs, 2014), p. 74.
57. Brink Lindsay, Against the Dead Hand: The Uncertain Struggle for Global Capitalism (New York: John Wiley, 2002), p. 63.
58. See, for example, “Passenger Kilometers Travelled,” Human Progress, http://humanprogress.org/f1/2374. The figures are incomplete, but completing the figures would only increase the already impressive total and reinforce the already real trend.
59. According to science journalist Ronald Bailey, forest trend researchers stated in a 2006 article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that “among 50 nations with extensive forests reported in the Food and Agriculture Organization’s comprehensive Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005, no nation where annual per capita gross domestic product exceeded $4,600 had a negative rate of growing stock change.” See Ronald Bailey, The End of Doom, p. 250.
60. Ridley, The Rational Optimist, p. 305.
61. Bailey, The End of Doom, p. 250.
62. “Forest Area, Square Kilometers,” Human Progress. http://humanprogress.org/sharable/8143
63. Ronald Bailey, “Rage Against the Machines,” Reason, July 2001. http://reason.com/archives/2001/07/01/rage-against-the-machines/1
64. “U.S. Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions,” Human Progress. http://humanprogress.org/static/3391
65. Bailey, The End of Doom, p. xvii.
66. Ibid., p. 2.
67. Bryce, Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper, p. 59.
68. Manchester, A World Lit Only by Fire, p. 55.
69. “Life Expectancy at Birth,” Human Progress. http://humanprogress.org/f1/2314
70. Bailey, The End of Doom, p. 2.
71. Gordon, Rise and Fall of American Growth, p. 322.
72. Max Roser, “Child Mortality,” Our World in Data. http://ourworldindata.org/data/population-growth-vital-statistics/child-mortality/
73. “Infant Mortality Rate,” Human Progress. http://humanprogress.org/f1/2386
74. “Death rate,” Human Progress. http://humanprogress.org/f1/2104
75. See, for example, “Wealth & Health of Nations,” Gapminder. http://www.gapminder.org/world/#$majorMode=chart$is;shi=t;ly=2003;lb=f;il=t;fs=11;al=30;stl=t;st=t;nsl=t;se=t$wst;tts=C$ts;sp=5.59290322580644;ti=2013$zpv;v=0$inc_x;mmid=XCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj1jiMAkmq1iMg;by=ind$inc_y;mmid=YCOORDS;iid=phAwcNAVuyj2tPLxKvvnNPA;by=ind$inc_s;uniValue=8.21;iid=phAwcNAVuyj0XOoBL_n5tAQ;by=ind$inc_c;uniValue=255;gid=CATID0;by=grp$map_x;scale=log;dataMin=194;dataMax=96846$map_y;scale=lin;dataMin=23;dataMax=86$map_s;sma=49;smi=2.65$cd;bd=0$inds=;modified=60
76. Manchester, A World Lit Only by Fire, p. 62.
77. T. Anderson. “Dental Treatment in Medieval England,” British Dental Journal 197, no. 7, October 9, 2004, p. 1. http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v197/n7/pdf/4811723a.pdf
78. D. H. Robinson and A. H. Toledo, “Historical Development of Modern Anesthesia,” Journal of Investigative Surgery 25, no. 3 (June 2012), pp. 141-49. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22583009
79. Bryce, Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper, p. 166.
80. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, p. 226.
81. McCloskey, Bourgeois Dignity, p. 57.
82. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, p. 228.
83. Max Roser, “Maternal Mortality,” Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/maternal-mortality/
84. Bryce, Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper, p. xxiii.
85. Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, “Global Extreme Poverty,” Our World in Data (first published in 2013; substantive revision March 27, 2017). https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty/
86. Jared Rhoads, “The Medical Context of Calvin Jr.’s Untimely Death,” Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation, July 7, 2014. https://coolidgefoundation.org/blog/the-medical-context-of-calvin-jr-s-untimely-death/
87. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, p. 214.
88. Chelsea German, “Modern Chemicals, Health, and Hunger,” Human Progress (January 13, 2016).http://humanprogress.org/blog/modern-chemicals—health—and-hunger
89. Ridley, The Rational Optimist, p. 310.
90. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, p. 214.
91. German, “Modern Chemicals, Health, and Hunger.”
92. See “You Have Died of Dysentery,” Know Your Meme. http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/you-have-died-of-dysentery
93. “Heart Disease,” NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools (RePORT). https://report.nih.gov/NIHfactsheets/ViewFactSheet.aspx?csid=96
94. Bryce, Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper, p. 41.
95. Ridley, The Rational Optimist, p. 298.
96. Bailey, The End of Doom, pp. 97-98.
97. Ibid., pp. 116-17.
98. Ridley, The Rational Optimist, p. 18.
99. Max Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, “Literacy,” Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/literacy/
100. “Mean Years of Schooling,” Human Progress. http://humanprogress.org/f1/3246
101. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, p. 178.
102. Victor Davis Hanson, “Progressive Mass Hysteria,” National Review online, June 30, 2015. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/420496/progressive-mass-hysteria
103. “Battle of New Orleans,” Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-New-Orleans-United-States-United-Kingdom-1815
104. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, p. 178.
105. Ibid., p. 431.
106. “Mobile Cellular Subscriptions,” Human Progress. http://humanprogress.org/f1/2537
107. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, p. 431.
108. Ibid., p. 440.
109. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziVpqh9UXmI.
110. Bryce, Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper, p. 113.
111. James B. Meigs, “Inside the Future: How PopMech Predicted the Next 110 Years,” Popular Mechanics, December 10, 2012. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a8562/inside-the-future-how-popmech-predicted-the-next-110-years-14831802/
112. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, p. 444.
113. Bryce, Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper, p. 111.
114. Gordon, The Rise and Fall of American Growth, p. 444.
115. Bryce, Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper, p. xxiii.
116. Ridley, The Rational Optimist, p. 24.
117. Bryce, Smaller Faster Lighter Denser Cheaper, p. 107.
118. Ibid., p. 117.
119. Ibid., p. 121.
120. “Internet Users,” Human Progress. http://humanprogress.org/f1/2536
121. Tim Montgomerie, “Two: Capitalism Has Produced a $600 Billion Global Marketing Machine but It Has Completely Failed to Sell Its Enormous Achievements,” Legatum Institute, Shorthand Social, November 9, 2015. https://social.shorthand.com/montie/3gPcCzNQ2uc/two
122. Quoted in Ridley, The Rational Optimist, p. 11.
Acknowledgments
Some people love writing books. Those people are strange, at least to me. Maybe if I didn’t have to churn out columns and magazine articles on deadlines, I’d enjoy writing books more. After all, there’s much to love about taking serious time to learn about a subject and think seriously about it. And if that was all I had to do professionally, maybe I would love writing books, too.
But that’s not the life I have chosen. And for that reason, I am immensely grateful to a large number of people who helped make it possible for me to get this book done.
>
That list begins with my wife, Jessica Gavora, who is not only an accomplished writer and thinker in her own right, but the best confidante, friend, and partner I could ever hope for. She put up with a lot over the last few years—not to mention ever since she met me!—and my gratitude to her is boundless.
My research assistant, Jack Butler, has been a great boon to me as well. He has been indefatigable in helping me work through this process (a very generous term for the cacophonous ordeal that has been this whole experience). In particular, the section in the appendix on human material progress is more his baby than my own. He is as sharp-minded as he is decent and hardworking, and I look forward to taking undue credit for his inevitable successes in life. He also helped manage a talented string of interns who helped at various stages of this book: Chris Gavin, Matt Winesett, Robbie Rosamelia, and James Altschul.
My editor, Mary Reynics, has been heroically unflappable and inhumanly cheerful from day one. I know for a fact that some editors would go on a three-state killing spree if an author delivered two-and-half-times more words than contractually obliged. She has been a great asset and ally for me throughout, as has everyone at Crown.
My literary agent, Jay Mandel, has been the best sounding board, advocate, and friend one could hope for in the ever-changing landscape of publishing.
I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the world, for reasons too long and too saccharine to list here. But near the top of the list is the fact that I have a home at two institutions that I consider the best in the world at what they do. The first is National Review, where I am a senior editor at the magazine and a fellow at the National Review Institute. My friend Rich Lowry, the brilliant editor of National Review, hired me two decades ago, essentially on a hunch. Since then, National Review has become more than an employer, but my Burkean little platoon. Rich generously gave me the time and space to get this book done, with the full and generous support of the National Review Institute, and its profoundly talented president, Lindsay Craig.
The second institution I call home is the American Enterprise Institute, to my mind the best and most consequential think tank in the world. Arthur Brooks, the president of AEI, has been a patron, a mentor, a friend, and a role model. He, too, hired me on a hunch in 2010, and my life has been changed for the better ever since.
I also wish to express my sincere gratitude to Thomas and Diane Smith for their generous support for this project.
Institutions matter, a lot. But what matters more, and what truly is the measure of my good fortune, are my friendships. At AEI, NR, and beyond, I am blessed to have a group of people who are not just friends but intellectual lodestars and resources. They have helped me in large ways and small to get my thoughts (somewhat) organized for this book. Special thanks go to my friend John Podhoretz, who offered both brilliant insights and encouragement from the book proposal to the finished product, as did Charles Murray, another indispensable friend and resource. Toby Stock, vice president for development and academic programs at AEI, has been a tremendous advocate and source of encouragement and insight. Kevin Williamson, my infuriatingly talented National Review colleague, read the whole manuscript and offered extremely useful notes. Steven Teles of the Niskanen Center was also kind enough to offer some useful critical comments near the end as well.
Marian Tupy and his team at the Cato Institute’s HumanProgress.org were simply a gold mine, particularly in the effort to compile data for the section on, well, human progress. I want to thank them for their generous help.
The last few years have been particularly trying, unsettling, and distracting in terms of the changing political landscape but also in more personal terms. Steven Hayes, A.B. Stoddard, Ramesh Ponnuru, Yuval Levin, Charles Cooke, Jack Fowler, Jay Nordlinger, Ronald Bailey, Bret Baier, Chris Stirewalt, James Rosen, Nick Schulz, Doug Anderson, Scott McLucas, Cliff Asness, Martin Eltrich, Harlan Crow, Chelsea Follett, Meg Cahill, Michael Pratt, Mark Antonio Wright, Reihan Salam, Scott Immergut, Rob Long, Patrick Fitzmaurice (the best syndicated column editor in the business), Drucilla Davida, Kirsten Reisz, and Ashley Koerber have helped me in ways large and small, either with book-related issues or with other demands on my brain, my work, or my time. I don’t know if I could have gotten through the last few years without their collective friendship, counsel, and assistance. I should also thank the entire crew at Signature Cigars in Washington, D.C. It’s been not just my office away from my offices but also a refuge in more ways than one.
I should also thank some intellectuals who have graciously taken the time to answer no doubt odd or silly questions from me. NYU’s Jonathan Haidt and Yale’s Paul Bloom were generous in their responses to email questions. I also want to thank Russ Roberts of the Hoover Institution. I have never met him, though we have emailed on occasion. But his podcast EconTalk not only saved me immense time in learning about and thinking about various complicated issues, but also taught me a great deal about how to think about some of the issues raised in this book.
Of course, all errors are my own (but don’t tell Jack that).
Then, of course, there are the two Lucys in my life: my mom, Lucianne Goldberg, who taught me so much about how to fight for what matters, and my daughter, Lucy, who, more than anyone else, reminds me daily what really matters.
About the Author
Jonah Goldberg is a Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a senior editor at National Review. A bestselling author whose nationally syndicated column appears regularly in over a hundred newspapers across the United States, he is also a weekly columnist for the Los Angeles Times, a member of the board of contributors to USA Today, a Fox News contributor, and a regular member of the “Fox News All-Stars” on Special Report with Bret Baier. He was the founding editor of National Review Online. The Atlantic magazine identified Goldberg as one of the top fifty political commentators in America. In 2011 he was named the Robert J. Novak Journalist of the Year at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He has written on politics, media, and culture for a wide variety of leading publications and has appeared on numerous tele-vision and radio programs. He is the author of two New York Times bestsellers, The Tyranny of Clichés (Sentinel, 2012) and Liberal Fascism (Doubleday, 2008).
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Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy Page 55