The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes

Steven Pinkers riveting, myth-destroying new book reveals how, contrary to popular belief, humankind has become progressively less violent, over millenia and decades. Given the images of conflict we see daily on our screens, can violence really have declined?- And wasnt the twentieth century the most devastatingly brutal in history? Extraordinarily, however, as Steven Pinker shows, violence within and between- societies - both murder and warfare - really has declined from prehistory to today. We are much less likely to die at someone elses hands than ever before. Debunking both the- idea of the noble savage and a Hobbesian notion of a nasty, brutish and short life, Steven Pinker argues that modernity and its cultural institutions are making us better people. He ranges over everything from art to religion, international trade to individual table manners, and shows how life has changed across the centuries and around the world - not simply through the huge benefits of organized government, but also because of the extraordinary power of progressive ideas. Why has this come about? And what does it tell us about ourselves? It takes one of the worlds greatest psychologists to appreciate and explain this story, and to show us our very natures.