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Original Title:	The Better Angels of Our Nature. Why Violence has Declined
Edition Language:	English
Literary Awards:	Royal Society Science Book Prize Nominee for Science Books (2012), Julia Ward Howe Prize Nominee (2012), Best Book of Ideas Prize Nominee (2012), Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction Nominee (2012), Cundill History Prize Nominee for Recognition of Excellence (2012)

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

Steven Pinker

Audiobook | Pages: 1 page

Rating: 4.17 | 21882 Users | 1981 Reviews

Point Of Books The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

Title	:	The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
Author	:	Steven Pinker
Book Format	:	Audiobook
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 1 page
Published	:	October 4th 2011 by Brilliance Audio (first published October 4th 2010)
Categories	:	Nonfiction. History. Psychology. Science. Philosophy. Sociology. Politics

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We’ve all had the experience of reading about a bloody war or shocking crime and asking, “What is the world coming to?” But we seldom ask, “How bad was the world in the past?” In this startling new book, the best-selling 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 in our species’ existence.

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; the nonchalant treatment in popular culture of wife-beating, child abuse, and the extermination of native peoples. Now the decline in these brutal practices can be quantified.

With the help of more than a hundred graphs and maps, Pinker presents some astonishing numbers. 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 suddenly were targeted for abolition. Wars between developed countries have vanished, and even in the developing world, wars kill a fraction of the numbers they did a few decades ago. Rape, battering, hate crimes, deadly riots, child abuse, cruelty to animals — all substantially down.How could this have happened, if human nature has not changed? What led people to stop sacrificing children, stabbing each other at the dinner table, or burning cats and disemboweling criminals as forms of popular entertainment? Was it reading novels, cultivating table manners, fearing the police, or turning their energies to making money? Should the nuclear bomb get the Nobel Peace Prize for preventing World War III? Does rock and roll deserve the blame for the doubling of violence in the 1960s — and abortion deserve credit for the reversal in the 1990s?

Not exactly, Pinker argues. The key to explaining the decline of violence is to understand the inner demons that incline us toward violence (such as revenge, sadism, and tribalism) and the better angels that steer us away. Thanks to the spread of government, literacy, trade, and cosmopolitanism, we increasingly control our impulses, empathize with others, bargain rather than plunder, debunk toxic ideologies, and deploy our powers of reason to reduce the temptations of violence.

With the panache and intellectual zeal that have made his earlier books international best sellers and literary classics, Pinker will force you to rethink your deepest beliefs about progress, modernity, and human nature. This gripping book is sure to be among the most debated of the century so far.

Rating Of Books The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

Ratings: 4.17 From 21882 Users | 1981 Reviews

Criticize Of Books The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. --The Federalist, No. 51, James MadisonThis is easily one of the best books of 2011, and I suppose it must already be earmarked as a Pulitzer finalist. Its about violence, but so much more than that since it strikes at the very core of human nature, the human

This seems like a stunning misstep by the normally brilliant Steven Pinker. His ability to write with extraordinary force and clarity has been demonstrated repeatedly in two separate areas of expertise -- linguistics and cognitive science. Unfortunately, the brilliance of his earlier books in those areas is nowhere in evidence in this regrettable dog's breakfast of a book. I found it almost unreadable - poorly argued, undisciplined, self-indulgent, and - despite its grotesquely bloated length

"War is peace"in: NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, by George Orwell Magic Mirror, do tell me, which one is RosierPinker??I still dont figure it out, in what planet psychologist Pinker lives on. I have watched him many times insisting on things are getting better. Due to his studies on violence, he sees there is less violence amongst humans. He adds to this optimistic picture: were getting more humane. One thing is reported, numerical cases of violence, in wars, in crime etc. Another different

VIOLENCE HAS DECLINED, AND I WILL KICK THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF ANYONE WHO SAYS IT HASN'T Disappointingly, Pinker strikes a slightly less confrontational tone than that, but the basic idea is the same. His thesis is that violence of every kind, from international warfare down to murder and corporal punishment, has been on a steady decline throughout human history, up to and including the present day and not only does he make this case in considerable detail, but he goes on to give a very

Audio Books : Educational : MP3/Variable : Englishblurb - We've all had the experience of reading about a bloody war or shocking crime and asking, "What is the world coming to?" But we seldom ask, "How bad was the world in the past?" In this startling new book, the best-selling 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 in our species' existence.Evidence of a bloody history has always been around us: the

Breathtakingly mindless for 2/5 of the book, blowhard the whole way through.Sometimes a good joke is more revealing than 800 pages of blowhardness. Pinker gives himself away with this quote by George Carlin on page 622: I think motivation is overrated. You show me some lazy prick who's lying around all day watching game shows and stroking his penis, and I'll show you someone who's not causing any fucking trouble!......I hope I am not the only one who thinks it is not necessarily a good thing to

An interesting idea, but Pinker fails to deliver a convincing argument. The subject of the book is violence, and Pinker argues that 1) violence has declined historically, and 2) that the decline is due to a number of factors. His five factors are a) strong states, 2) commerce, 3) feminization, 4) cosmopolitanism and 5) reason. There are several glaring problems with his thesis. First, he never defines "violence", a rather big problem since the book is about violence. From his examples, I infer