The idea of ​ ​ progress has largely determined the face of Western civilization. Humanity is developing, "moving forward," and this movement is understood in two aspects - as an accumulation of knowledge and as an increase in material wealth. The birth of the idea of ​ ​ progress is the result of the interaction of Christianity with ancient ideas. Initially, it was a variation on the theme of a linear idea of ​ ​ history, characteristic of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. In the period from 1750 to about 1900, there is a separation of the idea of ​ ​ progress from religious roots and the "fusion" of concepts of progress and science. This process was accompanied by threatening phenomena: if initially progress was interpreted as an expansion of human freedom, then from about the second half of the 19th century. it increasingly began to be understood as an expansion of "controllability" - simply put, the power of an abstract state over man and nature. The book is a classic work on social philosophy and is one of the most famous and cited works written in the tradition of the so-called conservative school in American sociology. It will be useful to sociologists, political scientists, public figures, politicians, students and teachers of humanitarian disciplines - everyone who is interested in the spiritual and ideological roots of modern civilization.