The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined - Hardcover

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Praise for Steven Pinker’s The Better Angels of Our Nature

A New York Times Notable Book

A Library Journal Best Book of the Year

One of Amazon’s 100 Best Books of the Year

A NetGalley Best of 2011

“For anyone interested in human nature, the material is engrossing, and when the going gets heavy, Pinker knows how to lighten it with ironic comments and a touch of humor. . . . A supremely important book. To have command of so much research, spread across so many different fields, is a masterly achievement.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“An extraordinary range of research . . . a masterly effort.”

—The Wall Street Journal

“It is quite a story, and Pinker tells it ably. There are stimulating thoughts on nearly every page.”

—New York

“Better Angels is a monumental achievement. His book should make it much harder for pessimists to cling to their gloomy vision of the future. Whether war is an ancient adaptation or a pernicious cultural infection, we are learning how to overcome it.”

—Slate.com

“Classic Pinker, jammed with facts, figures, and points of speculative departure; a big, complex book, well worth the effort for the good news that it delivers.”

—Kirkus Reviews

“This long, well-researched, comprehensive tour de force provides a helpful look at the human condition.”

—Booklist

“A hugely important work and major contribution to historiography.”

—Niall Ferguson, professor of history, Harvard University, and

author of Civilization: The West and the Rest

PENGUIN BOOKS

THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE

Table of Contents

Praise for Steven Pinker’s THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE

About the Author

Also by Steven Pinker

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Epigraph

Preface

Chapter 1 - A FOREIGN COUNTRY

Chapter 2 - THE PACIFICATION PROCESS

Chapter 3 - THE CIVILIZING PROCESS

Chapter 4 - THE HUMANITARIAN REVOLUTION

Chapter 5 - THE LONG PEACE

Chapter 6 - THE NEW PEACE

Chapter 7 - THE RIGHTS REVOLUTIONS

Chapter 8 - INNER DEMONS

Chapter 9 - BETTER ANGELS

Chapter 10 - ON ANGELS’ WINGS

NOTES

REFERENCES

INDEX

TO

Eva, Carl, and Eric

Jack and David

Yael and Danielle

and the world they will inherit

What a chimera then is man! What a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a contradiction, what a prodigy! Judge of all things, feeble earthworm, repository of truth, sewer of uncertainty and error, the glory and the scum of the universe.

—Blaise Pascal

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure

1–1 Everyday violence in a bodybuilding ad, 1940s
1–2 Domestic violence in a coffee ad, 1952
2–1 The violence triangle
2–2 Percentage of deaths in warfare in nonstate and state societies
2–3 Rate of death in warfare in nonstate and state societies
2–4 Homicide rates in the least violent nonstate societies compared to state societies
3–1 Homicide rates in England, 1200–2000: Gurr’s 1981 estimates
3–2 Homicide rates in England, 1200–2000
3–3 Homicide rates in five Western European regions, 1300–2000
3–4 Homicide rates in Western Europe, 1300–2000, and in nonstate societies
3–5 Detail from “Saturn,” Das Mittelalterliche Hausbuch (The Medieval Housebook, 1475–80)
3–6 Detail from “Mars,” Das Mittelalterliche Hausbuch (The Medieval Housebook, 1475–80)
3–7 Percentage of deaths of English male aristocrats from violence, 1330–1829
3–8 Geography of homicide in Europe, late 19th and early 21st centuries
3–9 Geography of homicide in the world, 2004
3–10 Homicide rates in the United States and England, 1900–2000
3–11 Geography of homicide in the United States, 2007
3–12 Homicide rates in England, 1300–1925, and New England, 1630–1914
3–13 Homicide rates in the northeastern United States, 1636–1900
3–14 Homicide rates among blacks and whites in New York and Philadelphia, 1797–1952
3–15 Homicide rates in the southeastern United States, 1620–1900

3–16 Homicide rates in the southwestern United States and California, 1830–1914
3–17 Flouting conventions of cleanliness and propriety in the 1960s
3–18 Homicide rates in the United States, 1950–2010, and Canada, 1961–2009
3–19 Homicide rates in five Western European countries, 1900–2009
4–1 Torture in medieval and early modern Europe
4–2 Time line for the abolition of judicial torture
4–3 Time line for the abolition of capital punishment in Europe
4–4 Execution rate in the United States, 1640–2010
4–5 Executions for crimes other than homicide in the United States, 1650–2002
4–6 Time line for the abolition of slavery
4–7 Real income per person in England, 1200–2000
4–8 Efficiency in book production in England, 1470–1860s
4–9 Number of books in English published per decade, 1475–1800
4–10 Literacy rate in England, 1625–1925
5–1 Two pessimistic possibilities for historical trends in war
5–2 Two less pessimistic possibilities for historical trends in war
5–3 100 worst wars and atrocities in human history
5–4 Historical myopia: Centimeters of text per century in a historical almanac
5–5 Random and nonrandom patterns
5–6 Richardson’s data
5–7 Number of deadly quarrels of different magnitudes, 1820–1952
5–8 Probabilities of wars of different magnitudes, 1820–1997
5–9 Heights of males (a normal or bell-curve distribution)
5–10 Populations of cities (a power-law distribution), plotted on linear and log scales
5–11 Total deaths from quarrels of different magnitudes
5–12 Percentage of years in which the great powers fought one another, 1500–2000
5–13 Frequency of wars involving the great powers, 1500–2000
5–14 Duration of wars involving the great powers, 1500–2000
5–15 Deaths in wars involving the great powers, 1500–2000
5–16 Concentration of deaths in wars involving the great powers, 1500–2000
5–17 Conflicts per year in greater Europe, 1400–2000

5–18 Rate of death in conflicts in greater...