Is Civilization a Disease?

In 1917, philosopher Stanton Coit asked a question that still hauls us before the bar of judgment: what if civilization itself is a sickness? This bracing, contrarian treatise shatters the comfortable assumption that progress is always good, that cities and commerce and industry represent human advancement. Coit argues that modern civilization, the systems of trade, governance, and social organization we unthinkingly celebrate, actually degrades authentic human life. It privileges abstraction over community, accumulation over well-being, the machine over the person. With historical examples, philosophical rigor, and sociological observation, Coit builds a damning case that civilization's foundations are sunk in exploitation and inequality. Commerce, he contends, is not mutual benefit but dressed-up predation; governance serves power rather than people. Yet the book is not nihilistic. Coit offers a vision of a new social order, one that prioritizes genuine community over competitive individualism, where human flourishing replaces economic growth as the measure of success. Is Civilization a Disease? speaks to anyone who has ever felt uneasy about the 'progress' we glorify, who suspects that something fundamental has been lost in the rush toward modernity. It remains a radical, unsettling provocation over a century later, perfect for readers who crave philosophy that refuses to comfort.