This is a book about change. Undesirable social change, to be more precise. It examines the changes in the lifestyle and ways of thinking that our society has undergone through the history to focus on those whose benefits have been dubious, yet have stuck with us to help define what has become our present-day reality. The goal of the book is not to present a balanced view of social alteration, but to highlight negative developments in the hope that it will spur us on to re-examine them.

The book consists of a large number of vignettes. Each one is focused on a single specific theme - from the matters of ecological devastation and stratification of society to our changing relationship with death. Together, they provide wide coverage of our social fabric.

The vignettes are told from the perspective of the people who have lived through the change and can contrast what came before with what has taken its place. By taking the first-person view, the book shows how a change than we may be familiar with in terms of news reports or statistics affects people whose daily living experience is altered by it.