The Better Angels of Our Nature
Why Violence Has Declined
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Narrated by:
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Arthur Morey
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By:
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Steven Pinker
About this listen
“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)
Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of the Year
The author of Enlightenment Now and 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, programs, 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.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2011 by Steven Pinker. (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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According to Goldberg, if the greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist, the greatest trick liberals ever pulled was convincing themselves they’re not ideological. Today “objective” journalists and academics and “moderate” politicians peddle some of the most radical arguments by hiding them in homespun aphorisms.
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I enjoyed it...and I'm a Democrat!!
- By Private. on 05-14-12
By: Jonah Goldberg
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War Without Mercy
- Race and Power in the Pacific War
- By: John W. Dower
- Narrated by: Tim Campbell
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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War Without Mercy has been hailed by the New York Times as "one of the most original and important books to be written about the war between Japan and the United States." In this monumental history, professor John Dower reveals a hidden, explosive dimension of the Pacific War - race - while writing what John Toland has called "a landmark book...a powerful, moving, and evenhanded history that is sorely needed in both America and Japan."
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War without Mercy
- By rbergen on 05-02-17
By: John W. Dower
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Blunder
- Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions
- By: Zachary Shore
- Narrated by: Zachary Shore, Kevin Pariseau
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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We all make bad decisions. It's part of being human. The resulting mistakes can be valuable, the story goes, because we learn from them. But do we? Historian Zachary Shore says no, not always, and he has a long list of examples to prove his point.
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helpful extension of the genre
- By Andy on 07-11-09
By: Zachary Shore
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Moral Tribes
- Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them
- By: Joshua Greene
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 14 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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A pathbreaking neuroscientist reveals how our social instincts turn Me into Us, but turn Us against Them - and what we can do about it. The great dilemma of our shrinking world is simple: never before have those we disagree with been so present in our lives. The more globalization dissolves national borders, the more clearly we see that human beings are deeply divided on moral lines - about everything from tax codes to sexual practices to energy consumption - and that, when we really disagree, our emotions turn positively tribal.
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Good Science, Bad Philosophy
- By Jacob on 10-27-16
By: Joshua Greene
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Why Honor Matters
- By: Tamler Sommers
- Narrated by: Tamler Sommers
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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To the modern mind, the idea of honor is outdated, sexist, and barbaric. It evokes Hamilton and Burr and pistols at dawn, not visions of a well-organized society. But for philosopher Tamler Sommers, a sense of honor is essential to living moral lives. In Why Honor Matters, Sommers argues that our collective rejection of honor has come at great cost. Reliant only on Enlightenment liberalism, the United States has become the home of the cowardly, the shameless, the selfish, and the alienated. Properly channeled, honor encourages virtues like courage, integrity, and solidarity.
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A critical, yet seemingly impossible, topic!
- By Anonymous User on 03-10-20
By: Tamler Sommers
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How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam Is Dying Too)
- By: David Goldman
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Past and present civilizations failed and fail for many reasons, but the number-one predictor of a civilization’s survival is its sense of religion—or lack thereof. So argues David Goldman in How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam Is Dying Too). The strength of a civilization’s religion affects its purpose, its fertility rate, and ultimately, its fate, says Goldman—who then argues that, contrary to popular belief, Islamic countries are in the last throes of death while Christian America is in a position to flourish.
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Pseudointellectual Clickbait
- By Sam on 12-22-20
By: David Goldman
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Still the Best Hope
- Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph
- By: Dennis Prager
- Narrated by: Erik Bergman
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In this visionary book, Dennis Prager, one of America's most original thinkers, contends that humanity confronts a monumental choice. The world must decide between American values and its two oppositional alternatives: Islamism and European-style democratic socialism. Prager makes the case for the American value system as the most viable program ever devised to produce a good society. Those values are explained here more clearly and persuasively than ever before.
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An Important Book, should be required reading
- By Beth on 07-18-12
By: Dennis Prager
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The Moral Animal
- Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Greg Thornton
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Are men literally born to cheat? Does monogamy actually serve women's interests? These are among the questions that have made The Moral Animal one of the most provocative science books in recent years. Wright unveils the genetic strategies behind everything from our sexual preferences to our office politics - as well as their implications for our moral codes and public policies.
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Ridiculously Insightful
- By Liron on 10-25-10
By: Robert Wright
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Why?
- Explaining the Holocaust
- By: Peter Hayes
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Despite the outpouring of books, movies, museums, memorials, and courses devoted to the Holocaust, a coherent explanation of why such ghastly carnage erupted from the heart of civilized Europe in the 20th century still seems elusive even 70 years later. Numerous theories have sprouted in an attempt to console ourselves and to point the blame in emotionally satisfying directions - yet none of them are fully convincing.
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Outstanding book! A must read
- By Pierre on 11-13-21
By: Peter Hayes
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The 10 Big Lies About America
- Combating Destructive Distortions About Our Nation
- By: Michael Medved
- Narrated by: Michael Medved
- Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In this bold and brilliantly argued book, acclaimed author and talk-radio host Michael Medved zeroes in on 10 of the biggest fallacies that millions of Americans believe about our country - in spite of incontrovertible facts to the contrary. In The 10 Big Lies About America, Medved pinpoints the most pernicious pieces of America-bashing disinformation that pollute current debates about the economy, race, religion in politics, the Iraq war, and other contentious issues.
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Truth
- By Dominique Bessette on 01-23-17
By: Michael Medved
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Civilized to Death
- The Price of Progress
- By: Christopher Ryan
- Narrated by: Christopher Ryan
- Length: 9 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Most of us have instinctive evidence the world is ending - balmy December days, face-to-face conversation replaced with heads-to-screens zomboidism, a world at constant war, a political system in disarray. We hear some myths and lies so frequently that they feel like truths: Civilization is humankind’s greatest accomplishment. Progress is undeniable. Count your blessings. You’re lucky to be alive here and now. Civilized to Death counters the idea that progress is inherently good, arguing that the "progress" defining our age is analogous to an advancing disease.
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Congintive Dissonance
- By Konnor C on 12-06-19
By: Christopher Ryan
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Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West but worldwide.
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The Blank Slate
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In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind, explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits, denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces objective analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of politics, violence, parenting, and the arts.
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Don't bother. Outdated science & poor logic...
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The Stuff of Thought
- Language as a Window into Human Nature
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In The Stuff of Thought, Steven Pinker marries two of the subjects he knows best: language and human nature. The result is a fascinating look at how our words explain our nature. What does swearing reveal about our emotions? Why does innuendo disclose something about relationships? Pinker reveals how our use of prepositions and tenses taps into peculiarly human concepts of space and time, and how our nouns and verbs speak to our notions of matter.
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Pinker is truly a brilliant and lucid explainer...
- By Rudi on 06-17-09
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How the Mind Works
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In this delightful, acclaimed bestseller, one of the world’s leading cognitive scientists tackles the workings of the human mind. What makes us rational—and why are we so often irrational? How do we see in three dimensions? What makes us happy, afraid, angry, disgusted, or sexually aroused? Why do we fall in love? And how do we grapple with the imponderables of morality, religion, and consciousness?
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Excellent, but a difficult listen.
- By David Roseberry on 12-11-11
By: Steven Pinker
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Strategy
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- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 32 hrs and 4 mins
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In Strategy: A History, Sir Lawrence Freedman, one of the world's leading authorities on war and international politics, captures the vast history of strategic thinking, in a consistently engaging and insightful account of how strategy came to pervade every aspect of our lives.
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Comprehensive 'Tour de Force' on Strategy
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Enlightenment Now
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We live in the best of all times
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In the 21st century, humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding - and at the same time appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that developed vaccines for COVID-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, medical quackery, and conspiracy theorizing? Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are an irrational species - cavemen out of time saddled with biases, fallacies, and illusions.
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Steven Pinker's Frozen Worldview from the 90s
- By Ryan Booth on 11-12-21
By: Steven Pinker
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In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind, explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits, denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces objective analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of politics, violence, parenting, and the arts.
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Don't bother. Outdated science & poor logic...
- By ejf211 on 03-31-10
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The Stuff of Thought
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Pinker is truly a brilliant and lucid explainer...
- By Rudi on 06-17-09
By: Steven Pinker
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How the Mind Works
- By: Steven Pinker
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In this delightful, acclaimed bestseller, one of the world’s leading cognitive scientists tackles the workings of the human mind. What makes us rational—and why are we so often irrational? How do we see in three dimensions? What makes us happy, afraid, angry, disgusted, or sexually aroused? Why do we fall in love? And how do we grapple with the imponderables of morality, religion, and consciousness?
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Excellent, but a difficult listen.
- By David Roseberry on 12-11-11
By: Steven Pinker
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Strategy
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Comprehensive 'Tour de Force' on Strategy
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Words and Rules
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First published in 2000, Words and Rules remains one of Pinker's most provocative and accessible books, illuminating the fascinating relationship between the brain, the mind, and how language makes us humans.
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Amazing how much irregular verbs can teach.
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The Language Instinct
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In this classic, the world’s expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling story: language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution. The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize from the American Psychological Association....
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Absolutely Amazing and Interesting
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On April 10, 2019, award-winning astrophysicist Heino Falcke presented the first image ever captured of a black hole at an international press conference - a turning point in astronomy that Science magazine called the scientific breakthrough of the year. That photo was captured with the unthinkable commitment of an intercontinental team of astronomers who transformed the world into a global telescope. While this image achieved Falcke’s goal in making a black hole “visible” for the first time, he recognizes that the photo itself asks more questions for humanity than it answers.
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One of the best astronomy book with latest details
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Silent Spring Revolution
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New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed presidential historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (1960-1973), telling the story of an indomitable generation that saved the natural world under the leadership of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon.
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Need one more book...
- By Chuck Wofford on 02-23-23
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A Place of My Own
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With this updated edition of his earlier book, A Place of My Own, listeners can revisit the inspired, intelligent, and often hilarious story of Pollan’s realization of a room of his own—a small, wooden hut, his “shelter for daydreams” — built with his admittedly unhandy hands. Inspired by both Thoreau and Mr. Blandings, A Place of My Own not only works to convey the history and meaning of all human building, it also marks the connections between our bodies, our minds, and the natural world.
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Pollan is the master of hipster porn
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The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
- Written by Himself
- By: Frederick Douglass
- Narrated by: Richard Allen
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The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass was Douglass' third autobiography. In it he was able to go into greater detail about his life as a slave and his escape from slavery, as he and his family were no longer in any danger from the reception of his work. In this engrossing narrative he recounts early years of abuse; his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom, abolitionist campaigns, and his crusade for full civil rights for former slaves.
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Excellent in so many ways...
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The Peloponnesian War
- By: Thucydides
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Historians universally agree that Thucydides was the greatest historian who has ever lived, and that his story of the Peloponnesian conflict is a marvel of forensic science and fine literature. That such a triumph of intellectual accomplishment was created at the end of the fifth century B.C. in Greece is, perhaps, not so surprising, given the number of original geniuses we find in that period. But that such an historical work would also be simultaneously acknowledged as a work of great literature and a penetrating ethical evaluation of humanity is one of the miracles of ancient history.
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You better know the events before listening
- By David A. Montalvo on 05-25-16
By: Thucydides
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Modern Man in Search of a Soul
- By: Carl Jung
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This collection of 11 wide-ranging lectures which appeared originally in 1933, was based on lectures previously given when Jung was in the process of absorbing a considerable period of study of Eastern religions, Gnosticism and other religious sources. It was a time, according to the translator Cary F. Baynes, ‘when the Western world stands on the verge of a spiritual rebirth...after a long period of outward expansion, we are beginning to look inside ourselves once more.’
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Superb! On All Fronts!
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American Ulysses
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A major new biography of the Civil War general and American president, by the author of the New York Times bestseller A. Lincoln. The dramatic story of one of America's greatest and most misunderstood military leaders and presidents, this is a major new interpretation of Ulysses S. Grant. Based on seven years of research with primary documents, some of them never tapped before, this is destined to become the Grant biography of our times.
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A New Campaign to Reasses Grant
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Sickening
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The United States spends an excess $1.5 trillion annually on health care compared to other wealthy countries—yet the amount of time that Americans live in good health ranks a lowly 68th in the world. At the heart of the problem is Big Pharma, which funds most clinical trials and therefore controls the research agenda, withholds the real data from those trials as corporate secrets, and shapes most of the information relied upon by health care professionals.
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Great info, but I’m confused…
- By Iread on 04-04-22
By: John Abramson
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On the Genealogy of Morals
- A Polemic
- By: Friedrich Nietzsche
- Narrated by: Duncan Steen
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In On the Genealogy of Morals, subtitled "A Polemic", Nietzsche furthers his pursuit of a clarity that is less tainted by imposed prejudices. He looks at the way attitudes towards 'morality' evolved and the way congenital ideas of morality were heavily colored by the Judaic and Christian traditions.
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Be strong, not weak.
- By Wayne on 06-24-13
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The Invention of Good and Evil
- A World History of Morality
- By: Hanno Sauer
- Narrated by: Callum Coates
- Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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What makes us moral beings? How do we decide what is good and what is evil? And has it always been that way? Hanno Sauer's sweeping new history of humanity, covering five million years of our universal moral values, comes at a crucial moment of crisis for those values, and helps to explain how they arose—and why we need them. Modern societies are in crisis: a shared universal morality seems to be a thing of the past. Hanno Sauer explains why this appearance is deceptive: in fact, there are universal values that all people share.
By: Hanno Sauer
What listeners say about The Better Angels of Our Nature
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- D
- 08-27-18
Hidden biased making self evident conclusion
Pinker spends 800 pages (with tiny letters, scholarly) making a self-evident case for the reduction of what HE calls "violence". Yes, everybody should agree that, amongst other things, the State and cultural advancements (the printing press etc) societies drew back from aggression (against each other, children, animals, woman, gay, blacks...).
BUT that doesn't mean we experience something that Pinker is incapable of conceptualizing: the underlying violent struct that sustains our non-violent lives. A quick example would be how the laws and the way airport security has the power to subject us in the way to prevent a terrorist attack. Or let's say how slavery ended, but the imprisonment system has boomed as a direct correlation.
Apart from his own bias as a hardcore Liberal (and he doesn't acknowledge this, rather calling himself as a rational), Steven Pinker fills the gap between premise and conclusion with hysterical anti-communism.
The book does a good job of compiling evidence and connecting disparate facts. This book is a discussion catalyzer (especially if your book club consists of liberals and socialist/communists), so enjoy it but be ready to get angry (and linguistically violent) at him!
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6 people found this helpful
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- Paul
- 12-20-11
Would get 5 stars if read by author
I gave this 4 stars overall just because the author doesn't read this book. Granted, Arthur Morey does a great job and this book represents a 36 hour commitment. Pinker makes a convincing case that violence is reduced in our current world compared to previous times. This isn't just about the crime drop of the 1990's but that's part of it. The strongest comparisons are the ones between the 20th century and the 16th century. But you can imagine some reductions in violence: the end of slavery; women's rights; better treatment of aboriginal peoples. But look at how long humanity has had the hydrogen bomb and never used it in anger. Even terrorism can be seen as a drop in violence because the number of people actually attacked is low compared to wars.
The author doesn't go into why violence is less today until he gets to the last part of the book. There he makes some claims and backs it up with evidence from recent psychological studies. This doesn't completely prove his thesis but I think it would be hard to debate the opposite: that violence is increasing. Even though I bet a politician today would get more votes for saying so.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Kenneth
- 12-08-11
A convincing look at humanity's social evolution
Where does The Better Angels of Our Nature rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
This a powerfully fascinating book where Pinker shows, with very thorough evidence, that human nature has changed for the better over the centuries. In short, Pinker will prove to you how we have, if still incompletely depending on culture and region, become more peaceful, just and civilization after a fashion. In that, the author gives a detailed look at the history of violence in society that will make you blanch at the bloody antics done by our ancestors and the psychological research trying to explain it. Just hear the reader read out how medieval people found
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I was heartened for at least one element of the human race, even while I wanted to give those sadists in the past a taste of their own medicine.
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- Susan
- 03-11-16
Masterpiece
This book was quite an undertaking in length , but well worth the time spent . This is an absolute masterpiece, and one of the most thoughtful and thorough pieces of literature I have ever read . I recommend this to all avid readers .
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- Pradheepa
- 12-11-13
Not an easy listen, but worth the effort.
The title clearly summarizes what the book is about. The science was the most interesting part of the book. The statistical analysis of wars, the difference in perspective between victims and perpetrators, the explanation of reduction in violence using the framework of the pacifist's dilemma etc. were very interesting. The historical narrative was hard to listen to because it is hard to come to terms with the violence that is a part of our past. I am glad that violence is coming down, but wish it would decline more rapidly. I hope listeners will better understand how to alter payoffs in order to create conditions that favor peace and do what they can, after listening to this book. Understanding, reason, enlightened thinking and empathy will hopefully reduce unnecessary suffering faster in the future.
The narration was very good making it easier to finish this long book.
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- Matthew
- 12-07-14
So much info
What did you love best about The Better Angels of Our Nature?
So much info, so interesting.
Any additional comments?
His depth is great. Though I'm not interested in psychology (chapter 9 or something focuses on this), the amount of novel and non-intuitive info he presents make it worth listening to.
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- Honest John
- 12-22-14
Excellent !!!
If you could sum up The Better Angels of Our Nature in three words, what would they be?
Fascinating, engaging, thought provoking, and hopeful book. Impressively researched. Intriguing thesis well presented and supported. A masterpiece!!
Who was your favorite character and why?
NA -- this is not a novel.
Which character – as performed by Arthur Morey – was your favorite?
Morey's narration is excellent. His pacing and phrasing tie in perfectly with the subject matter. It felt like the author was speaking to me directly.
What’s the most interesting tidbit you’ve picked up from this book?
Pinker constructs a careful and thorough analysis of the trajectory of human violence and demonstrates conclusively how and why it has decreased.
Any additional comments?
Buy it !!
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- Daniel M.
- 01-03-18
Exceptional, optimistic, and an eye-opener
Science-based, puts our contemporary violence in perspective to our bloody past. I did not think that I will learn much from this book, but was exited to find that I was wrong.
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- Pank
- 12-17-18
A book for bringing optimism
this book is both factual and well written. this is the kind of book anyone can read and it is informative. It may be lonng, but its worth it.
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- Charles Mintz
- 05-22-18
Some books don't do well on Audible
This is an important timely book. That being said, it is loaded with statistics. Great for reading but when read to you, gets a bit mind-numbing. So, I would heartily recommend this book but beware, the listen is a slog. I would have reviewed the performance higher, he read it just fine. Again, the statistics were not a great fit....
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