The Better Angels of our Nature

What if Abraham Lincoln chose not to go to war to preserve the Union? What if Lincoln lived to his 80s, including a number of years spent in Britain and Australia? What if the vast land area between Mexico and Canada was, from 1861 to 1926, the location of not one, nor two, but five different nations? What if both slavery and polygamy persisted in the Empire of Texas for a generation longer than they did anywhere else in North America? What if such Europeans as Florence Nightingale, Alfred Dreyfus, and Dickens's "Tiny Tim" all spent time on the North American continent? What if those who died during the Spanish Influenza epidemic in 1918 included a psychiatric patient in a Georgia hospital named John Wilkes Booth and an inmate in a prisoner-of-war camp in Pennsylvania named Adolf Hitler?

What if Abraham Lincoln chose not to go to war to preserve the Union? What if Lincoln lived to his 80s, including a number of years spent in Britain and Australia? What if the vast land area between Mexico and Canada was, from 1861 to 1926, the location of not one, nor two, but five different nations? What if both slavery and polygamy persisted in the Empire of Texas for a generation longer than they did anywhere else in North America? What if such Europeans as Florence Nightingale, Alfred Dreyfus, and Dickens's "Tiny Tim" all spent time on the North American continent? What if those who died during the Spanish Influenza epidemic in 1918 included a psychiatric patient in a Georgia hospital named John Wilkes Booth and an inmate in a prisoner-of-war camp in Pennsylvania named Adolf Hitler?

"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) A provocative history of violence-from the New York Times bestselling author of The Stuff of Thought, The Blank Slate, and Enlightenment Now. Believe it or not, today we may be living in the most peaceful moment in our species' existence. In his gripping and controversial new work, New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows that despite the ceaseless news about war, crime, and terrorism, violence has actually been in decline over long stretches of history. Exploding myths about humankind's inherent violence and the curse of modernity, this ambitious book continues Pinker's exploration of the essence of human nature, mixing psychology and history to provide a remarkable picture of an increasingly enlightened world.

"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) A provocative history of violence-from the New York Times bestselling author of The Stuff of Thought, The Blank Slate, and Enlightenment Now. Believe it or not, today we may be living in the most peaceful moment in our species' existence. In his gripping and controversial new work, New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows that despite the ceaseless news about war, crime, and terrorism, violence has actually been in decline over long stretches of history. Exploding myths about humankind's inherent violence and the curse of modernity, this ambitious book continues Pinker's exploration of the essence of human nature, mixing psychology and history to provide a remarkable picture of an increasingly enlightened world.

Kan det vikelig passe, at menneskeslægten igennem årene er blevet mindre voldelige? Steven Pinker berører bl.a. dette spørgsmål i sin historiske bog "The Better Angels of our Nature - A history of violence and humanity", der i 2012 blev nomineret til en Samuel Johnson Prize. Bogen gennemgår vold i, mellem og uden for samfundet, som det er set i årtusinder, og han berører både krig og mordere. "The Better Angels of our Nature - A history of violence and humanity" er en meget spændende og vigtig bog, der rokker ved den almene opfattelse af, at det er moderne samfund er voldeligt som aldrig før.

Kan det vikelig passe, at menneskeslægten igennem årene er blevet mindre voldelige? Steven Pinker berører bl.a. dette spørgsmål i sin historiske bog "The Better Angels of our Nature - A history of violence and humanity", der i 2012 blev nomineret til en Samuel Johnson Prize. Bogen gennemgår vold i, mellem og uden for samfundet, som det er set i årtusinder, og han berører både krig og mordere. "The Better Angels of our Nature - A history of violence and humanity" er en meget spændende og vigtig bog, der rokker ved den almene opfattelse af, at det er moderne samfund er voldeligt som aldrig før.