The Better Angels of Our Nature
by Steven Pinker
Violence has declined over centuries, and here is the data and the explanation: the state, commerce, feminisation, cosmopolitanism, reason. Eight hundred pages, controversial and mind-changing.
Read it if…
you believe the world is getting worse and want the counter-evidence.
See the book →
Skip it if…
you want brevity; see Enlightenment Now.
Try instead: Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court →
Three things you will actually use
- Measure before you despair.
- Institutions tame violence.
- Progress is real and reversible.
Do this first
Read the chapter on the humanitarian revolution.
Our verdict
The decline of violence.
See the book →
Compare with other Character books
Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court
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Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance
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