J. B. Bury 
Idea of Progress [EPUB ebook] 

In historiography, the Idea of Progress is the theory that advances in technology, science, and social organization inevitably produce an improvement in the general human condition. Meaning, people can be happier in terms of quality of life through economic development and the application of scientific progress. "To the minds of most people the desirable outcome of human development would be a condition of society in which all the inhabitants of the planet would enjoy a perfectly happy existence."