"If I could give each of you a graduation present, it would be this--the
most inspiring book I've ever read.
--Bill Gates (May, 2017)
Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the
Year
The author of Enlightenment Now and The New York Times bestseller
The Stuff of Thought offers a controversial history of violence.
Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism,
one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as
New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling
and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been
diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time
in our species's existence. For most of history, war, slavery,
infanticide, child abuse, assassinations, programs, gruesome
punishments, deadly quarrels, and genocide were ordinary features of
life. But today, Pinker shows (with the help of more than a hundred
graphs and maps) all these forms of violence have dwindled and are
widely condemned. How has this happened?
This groundbreaking book continues Pinker's exploration of the essence
of human nature, mixing psychology and history to provide a remarkable
picture of an increasingly nonviolent world. The key, he explains, is to
understand our intrinsic motives--the inner demons that incline us
toward violence and the better angels that steer us away--and how
changing circumstances have allowed our better angels to prevail.
Exploding fatalist myths about humankind's inherent violence and the
curse of modernity, this ambitious and provocative book is sure to be
hotly debated in living rooms and the Pentagon alike, and will challenge
and change the way we think about our society.
