In a time when it seems every atrocity is brought to our attention through an endless news cycle it can appear that the world gets more and more violent. But a factual look at the history of violence shows, actually, the astonishing rate at which violence has declined. This books lays out that long view, and also examines the many reasons why that may be. It is a long and complicated book, but well worth the time to read.

Although I thought the science was well conveyed I felt a little bit skeptical about some of the historical and political interpretations.

An excellent thesis on the historic reduction of human violence.

Pinker argues that the rate of violence is going down and he does a remarkable job in convincing the reader. Everything from world wars and civil wars to domestic violence and spanking children is reducing over time. We abolished slavery. We do not have death penalties in many countries. Knights are not duelling. You cannot win a war, kill the children and take the women anymore. All of these used to be common practices and Pinker takes us along on roller coaster ride of history explaining what happened along the way. He points to a steady rise of humanity and reasoning among us. He argues that even though we live under the fear of terrorism, we are living in the most peaceful era of humanity and hopes that the best is yet to come.

The book is brutally analytical. He goes back to the earliest writings and fossils looking for evidences. The data is staggering and mind blowing. Pinker does a stellar job at research, understanding the deluge of data and also codifying and presenting it in a very understandable way. There is so much of it, but it is still very difficult to call it superfluous. The book links to an exceptionally high number of references and notes; enough for you to research for a decade.

Pinker understands that correlation does not imply causation. A rise in mortality might be a good reason for the decline of violence, but it doesn't prove it. A third factor could be causing both at the same time. His explanation takes this into consideration most of the times but I felt him forgetting that once in a while. Pacifist dilemma is a game theoretical explanation. The 5 major factors that he proposes are the leviathan, gentle commerce, feminization, the expanding circle and the escalation of reason.

The style of writing is lucid and mostly unequivocal. You tend to remember quite a bit from the book. Its very hard to ignore statements like "No 2 democracies or 2 countries with a McDonald's ever went into a war" (The book was written before Russia invaded Ukraine later). Its hard to believe that 55m people died in WW2, but it is still not the deadliest war in the history (only 9th when adjusted to population and WW1 is only the 16th). As someone very poor in History, I learned quite a bit.

The book is long, and it took me forever to finish it. Brevity would have made this book a masterpiece.

Pinker, as always from what I've read of his work, uses an awful lot of words to say not very much. I listened to the audiobook, mostly while driving, so I was denied the abilty to skim the truly ridiculous number of lists of examples for what seemed like every issue raised. The most egregious of these was the point where he said he wouldn't like to spend any time in a torture museum, and then proceeded, with what felt a lot like glee, to reel off an extensive list of its contents and how they were used. I got the impression that someone who read the manuscript must have made a similar observation, because he felt the need to justify its inclusion. I understand the inclusion - showing the brutality of the past without the rose-tinted spectacles of nostalgia - what I object to is the length, the detail, the seeming relish, and the impression it was done to bulk up a work that was, overall, a bit light on conclusions.

I've seen this recommended in a few places lately. I expected it to be better.

Heavily footnoted, Pinker argues that violence has declined significantly, and hammers home the notion that things are better than they have ever been. He does remind us that things might change back again, and that we need to be vigilant. But with this book, he makes a good case for not worrying quite so much. However, he does make me consider seriously moving out of Texas.

Now, since finishing it, someone copied off a section of a book they're reading in their class that pokes massive holes in a lot of Pinker's prehistoric sources. But I still think there's merit to the idea that things are better, and it's nice to get a solid banner-headline book proclaiming it loudly.

I finished!!! This is an amazing (and looooong) book that could probably do with a better cover. (Really, book designer? This is the best you could come up with?) It took me about seven months to finish it (with sizable breaks in between) and I'm so glad I stuck with it. I think Pinker's arguments go off the rails at many points (which other reviewers point out) but otherwise it's a fascinating book.

There was a lot of really good information but it was just too long for me.

An impressive work of drawing together seemingly disparate material into a coherent thesis. Way long and tedious at times, but overall extremely interesting.