Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

Steven Pinker

ISBN 10: 0670022950 / ISBN 13: 9780670022953

Published by Viking October 2011, 2011

About this Item

Tight, clean. DJ shows light rubbing. Signed on title page.

Seller Inventory # 1015468

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined
• Publisher: Viking October 2011
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0670022950
• ISBN 13: 9780670022953
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed By Author
• Seller catalogs:
  • 14-FIRST EDITIONS

About this title

Synopsis

Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year

The author of 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, pogroms, 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.

About the Author

Steven Pinker is the Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and the winner of many awards for his research, teaching, and books, he has been named one ofTime's 100 Most Influential People in the World Today and Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers.