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Steven Pinker

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined MP3 CD – MP3 Audio, September 25, 2012

by Steven Pinker (Author), Arthur Morey (Reader)

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We?ve all asked, ?What is the world coming to?? But we seldom ask, ?How bad was the world in the past?? In this startling new book, the bestselling cognitive scientist Steven Pinker shows that the world of the past was much worse. In fact, we may be living in the most peaceable era yet. Evidence of a bloody history has always been around us: the genocides in the Old Testament and crucifixions in the New; the gory mutilations in Shakespeare and Grimm; the British monarchs who beheaded their relatives and the American founders who dueled with their rivals. Now the decline in these brutal practices can be quantified. Tribal warfare was nine times as deadly as war and genocide in the 20th century. The murder rate in medieval Europe was more than thirty times what it is today. Slavery, sadistic punishments, and frivolous executions were unexceptionable features of life for millennia, then were suddenly abolished. Wars between developed countries have vanished, and even in the developing wor

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Brilliance Audio
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September 25, 2012
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5.25 x 0.75 x 7.5 inches
ISBN-10

1455883115
ISBN-13

978-1455883110
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steven Pinker is Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. A two-time Pulitzer finalist and the winner of many prizes for his research, teaching, and books, he has been named one of Time's 100 most influential people in the world today and Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers. He lives in Cambridge.

Arthur Morey has narrated over 100 audiobooks, including That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo, Last Night in Twisted River by John Irving, the five Rabbit novels by John Updike, and The Evolution of God by Robert Wright. He has received seven AudioFile Earphones awards and an Audie nomination for Descent into Chaos by Ahmed Rashid.

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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Brilliance Audio; Unabridged edition (September 25, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1455883115
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1455883110
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.75 x 7.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #5,901,329 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,588 in Violence in Society (Books)
- #10,674 in Medical Social Psychology & Interactions
- #12,901 in Popular Social Psychology & Interactions

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Steven Pinker

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Steven Pinker is one of the world's leading authorities on language and the mind. His popular and highly praised books include The Stuff of Thought, The Blank Slate, Words and Rules, How the Mind Works, and The Language Instinct. The recipient of several major awards for his teaching, books, and scientific research, Pinker is Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. He also writes frequently for The New York Times, Time, The New Republic, and other magazines.

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Trade Master Haze

Neo-liberal Garbage!

Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2020

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The violence is in the laws of the nations. Neo-liberalism is the ideology at the root of all our problems and it is legal. Slavery in a different form. This is the reality: slavery is violence. It's physical, verbal, and sexual abuse. It's forced prostitution. Low pay and other minimal benefits at work cause some people to be in a state of neo-slavery. They are nominally free individuals and are not the property of others, but their economic standing and power is so limited that they have to work for whatever they can get; and just put up with it. This state of neo-slavery is not accidental, it is the outcome of neo-liberalism, the economic orthodoxy that now dominates the globe. Deregulation of markets, the privatisation of publicly owned assets, the shift in the disproportionate share of income and wealth controlled by a ruling elite, together with burgeoning inequality are all advocated in the name of the free markets as a scientific reality. Neo-liberalism has such a powerful grip that it is rarely discussed by name. These are just the way things are. I argue that the supposed inevitability of the neo-liberal agenda is driven more by blind faith than scientific objectivity. As such it is a religion pretending to be a science. Indeed the rampant inequality resulting from the neo-liberal prayer book is counter-productive, because more egalitarian societies are more successful, and are happier places to live. Violence has not declined. Just the opposite. Neo-liberalism is violence evolved. I'll leave with a quote.

“If I determine the enemy's disposition of forces while I have no perceptible form, I can concentrate my forces while the enemy is fragmented. The pinnacle of military deployment approaches the formless: if it is formless, then even the deepest spy cannot discern it nor the wise make plans against it.”

- Sun Tzu - The Art of War

71 people found this helpful

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Brandon

Excellent read, with a few minor annoyances

Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2017

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This is truly a marvelous piece of work. I can't imagine the amount of time and research that went into crafting this epic - and that is truly what it is. The author takes so many different perspectives - historical, psychological, biological, evolutionary, etc. to explain the decline of violence over the course of human history, and it is truly amazing and engrossing to read.

However, I had to dock a star for a few reasons. First, I believe Pinker uses excessively obsolete and/or "advanced" vocabulary throughout the entirety of the book. The vast majority of people reading this book, I believe, will have a very difficult time reading the book without a dictionary nearby (or of course, an app on your smartphone, which I admittedly used). I have a college background in writing, and was proficient in writing throughout my schooling days, but Pinker's vocabulary is advanced to the point of being frustrating and annoying; I found hundreds of words throughout the ~ 700 pages that I hadn't a clue as to their meaning. Eventually, it became frustrating enough that I downloaded the Merriam-Webster dictionary app for the sole purpose of having it on hand while reading this book! Never had that problem with any other book.

Second, Pinker tends to run off on tangents on a consistent basis, and you will often forget you are even reading a book on violence. Many of these tangents are relatively interesting, but at times I thought perhaps he was just stroking his own ego rather than staying on topic. The book could have been much more concise and delivered the same message.

As a whole, however, the book is excellent and definitely worth a read, if you are up for a challenge. Or hey, maybe I'm not as great a reader as I thought I was! I found it a challenging but rewarding read and I came away from the experience with a great deal of knowledge and insight.

99 people found this helpful

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Steve Kunkel

Offensive to Christians

Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2018

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Couldn't get through the first chapter. Many insults to Christians. Using the Bible as evidence that life more than 2000 years ago was more violent than would have been OK. But, the author gives well beyond that many times and didn't need to for the point of this book. Very Offensive. I stopped reading. I have many other books to read. I'm reading one of those.

42 people found this helpful

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Stone

Well written book with some important takeaways

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2017

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Being a recent college graduate, the moment I saw that Bill Gates had recommended this book, I bought it and began reading. This book has some important, intriguing, and profound themes such as how far we have come collectively as humans from even the middle ages to now. Though we are by no means close to being angels, (as evident by the chapter about our inner demons), progress is undeniable. I also am a fan of Pinker's style of writing. He adds humor intermittently, has some interesting anecdotes, and does a good job at explaining most of his reasoning and data. I found the length of this book to be excessive though. This is a big book, make no mistake about it. At times, when Pinker is backing up his claims with copious amounts of data and graphs in the middle sections of the book, it can be a chore to read. However, I think I am the better for having read this book, and though I personally would not say that this book changed my life, I am glad to have read it.

I would also like to mention that if you buy the paperback version, towards the beginning, the text on the pages is uniformly at an angle, and not entirely horizontal across the page.

47 people found this helpful

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Pat Downes

A book everyone SHOULD read. Uplifting proof that the human race is becoming more kind.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 9, 2018

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Just finished this scholarly work.I can read a novel in a couple of days but this took me over a month. Why? At times it is as much fun as reading a text book but it is well worth, taking note of what Pinker is saying, putting the book down, and thinking about the points he makes. This book PROVES we are becoming a more peaceful tolerant species( in spite of what The Daily Mail would have us believe).It is such good news.The first part of the book, using death counts as evidence, proves we are killing each other far less than we used to and in less horrible and violent ways and the second half carefully considers all the reasons why that might be. Factual, very carefully researched and extremely well written, even difficult scientific concepts are made very clear by the use of carefully chosen analogies.A truly important piece of work but also an extremely enjoyable read.

20 people found this helpful

StephenDS

An eye-opener of a book you should read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 20, 2019

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How do levels of violence, conflict and war in present times compare with the past? Modern communications, with 24 hour and super fast social media coverage give the impression of a modern world replete with savagery, and so it is in many ways. But this book uses modern scientific studies of wars, conflicts and violence through the ages to show that the past is not only another country, it is one that would truly horrify us if we lived there. And that's the point. Today, we find violence repellent, even our wars have become less horrific. Our better natures are firmly on the side of making the world a better place, and this book tells us, using well based, credible evidence, that we are moving in the right direction. It's a long book because the author is conscientious about giving the evidence, but it is a book you should read.

One person found this helpful

M. Burns

Stop watching the news for a while and read this book!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2012

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This book is not an easy read, it is a scholarly piece of work detailing the evidence for the decline in violence and more difficult task of proving its causes. Whilst in places it may be lots of statistics the overall result is a thought provoking and positive message that could do with being widely disseminated.

If you are a regular consumer of news media you could be forgiven for thinking, "what decline in violence?" There seems always to be a war going on somewhere, our towns and cities are crime ridden, aren't they? The answer is yes war has not been and seems unlikely to be eliminated any time soon and violent crime is a daily fact of life in many places in this world.

When you take a cold hard look at the facts rather than the news headlines the conclusion is undeniable that the world is a less violent place today than its ever been. Starting with our hunter/gatherer ancestors where life was truly nasty, brutish and short, travelling forward in time through early civilisations to our modern era of nation states and global commerce there has been a huge decline in the odds of suffering injury and untimely death at the hands of a fellow human. This decline has not been steady or constant but has wavered up at times and down at others, and from place to place, but long term, the decline is very real. Pinker stacks up the evidence in a clear and digestible form, that can seem repetitive but makes the case for the long term decline of violence irrefutable by any reasonable mind.

The big question this book attempts to answer is "what are the causes of this decline?" This is a question that it is vital for us to grasp if we are to ensure that the "long peace" may continue into the future and the world continue to get less violent. That we have come to think that war and other violence is not a smart way to behave is a triumph of reason and rational action that we may take for granted but just a few generations ago many still believed in the honour of war and the necessity of defending one's honour by violently destroying your enemies.

The conclusions that Pinker arrives at seem entirely plausible. The decline in violence seems inextricably linked with a rise in education, the sharing of information, the ability to read and be transported into the lives of others, and the sympathy this engenders. The resulting rise in enlightened reasoning overtaking received dogma as a better way to organise ourselves. Democracy for all its faults does seem a force for peace. Democracies that function passably well don't go to war with each other. The positive changes in western culture in just my own life time have been quite remarkable. The universal declaration of human rights, the civil rights movement, the rise of women's rights, gay rights, animal rights, the downfall of communism and other ideologies and despots that diminished the rights of the individual. Glance a little further back into the past and things our ancestors gave little thought to, slavery, wife beating, child beating, torture, witch burning, infanticide, now fill us with horror. It is unthinkable that we could now accept such things as a part of civilised life in the 21st century.

It is no accident that the most peaceful and safe places to live in the modern world are those places with a well educated populace governed by a functioning democracy, policed by an impartial justice system, with open access to information. Conversely the least safe places in the world lack some or all of the above.

The ideas that were yesteryears liberal radicalism, women's rights for instance, have now become so mainstream that even the most conservative have embraced the inevitable and sometimes even claim it as their own idea.

The feminisation of world is also a force for peace. Violence is by no means exclusively male but it is overwhelmingly so. Most violence is perpetrated by young men. A fact that is beginning to haunt those parts of the world that have used modern methods (and old fashioned infanticide) to preferentially select for male offspring. The resulting large groups of young adult males, without the prospect of marriage and its calming influence on male testosterone fuelled behaviour, is the cause of much criminally or ideologically driven violence. The countries where violence within the family and wider communities is rife also happen to be the countries where women's rights and their influence is weakest.

The lesson I think I have learned from reading The Better Angels Of Our Nature is that whilst the future is by no means assured to be less violent than the past, we now have a fairly clear idea of how to steer ourselves in that direction. This is to embrace science and reason, reject ideology and dogma. We need functioning democracies, we need shared commerce and resources, we need impartial justice, we need open information and free discussion. None of those things can happen unless all the people are sufficiently educated to be able not only to read, write and do arithmetic but to be capable of abstract reasoning. We have to be able to walk a mile in another man's (or woman's) shoes.

Over a century ago Charles Darwin summed it up in The Descent Of Man.
As man advances in civilization, and small tribes are united into larger communities, the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all the members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to men of all nations and races.

40 people found this helpful

F. Gunn

Optimist but....

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 19, 2018

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I loved the first third of this book, engagingly written and humane, 2nd third a bit repetitive but still interesting, the final third - not so much, tedious reiteration of the argument and dodgy male/female brain stuff. Do read Cordelia Fine's "Delusions of Gender" as a welcome and necessary antidote. I would say the book is worth reading but could have done with some judicious editing.

2 people found this helpful

A. Listener

Can't recommend this enough...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 7, 2013

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Whilst reading many positive reviews on the book, I was expecting it to be a good read, but I don't think I was expecting something quite as informative as this gem of a book has turned out to be.

It's become such a cliché these days, to say 'this is the best book I've read...'etcetera, But for me, it really does fall true for 'Better Angels Of Our Nature'. It is the most informative and interesting non-fiction book I can remember reading. I feel like I've learned so much just from one book.

It covers not just the various acts of violence over human history, but the change in attitudes such as human rights movements, and the evolution of 'etiquette' social behaviour, table manners and such, too. As well as the possible reasons 'why'. All this from our primitive past of hunter gatherer tribes, to modern day states and super-states.

You might be expecting (considering the subject) an heavy, dry, academic tone from the author, but Pinker writes with such eloquence, he draws you in and arouses genuine interest. I didn't find the book a particularly heavy book. I'd actually read just about half of the book in one sitting, and the second half, a day later. Given the fact that this book covers so much, I do feel I'll need to read it a couple of times though to benefit from the full wealth of knowledge it offers.

I bought this book, along with a couple of other of Pinker's books, a few of weeks ago. But with the size and subject of this book, I put off reading it for a while. Thinking it was going to be heavily academic, and needed to be in the right mood for it to take my interest. I needn't have though. I've thoroughly enjoyed it, and look forward to reading more of Pinker's collection, including 'Blank Slate', which I bought along with this one.

If someone was to ask me to recommend them just one book - this would be that book. Can't recommend it enough.

17 people found this helpful

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