The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

A brilliant read. It gave me an insight, like a little glimpse through an open window, into the mystical foreign land we call past and how we got to the present.

Wow. An eye opener with factually quoted information over centuries of death, torture and violence. The author proves that gradually the society is becoming more civilized and peaceful.Some chapters are too long e.g. the chapter - The Long Peace might get boring, but as a whole the book keeps the momentum going and informative.

I finally finished reading this book today. Yes, it is a long book. Broadly the book can be divided into three parts, History, psychology & the conclusion for all the violence in human history. I really enjoyed reading the history part which he explained with a lot of graphs, tables, data & statistical analysis. He has done an excellent job at handling data which to me is the key selling point of this book. Every point he writes is backed by data. These historical stories roll for nearly 600 pages followed by two chapters on Psychological aspects of violence. We went too far with the biology of the human brain(Honestly I did not enjoy it much). This is followed by an all-around conclusion which he maps beautifully using several game theory (prisoner's dilemma) tables.So why read this book?This book will teach you how precious peace is. Why so much of blood bath came into becoming normal & How our society finally managed to come from 20000 deaths/100000 to a single figure death in modern times. Every single cause & effect is deeply analyzed to clearly portray a complete image. It will change your complete perspective towards human atrocity in any form.

If I could give each of you a graduation present, it would be a copy of The Better Angels of Our Nature, by Steven Pinker. After several years of studying, you may not exactly be itching to read a 700-page book. But please put this one on your reading list to get to someday. It is the most inspiring book I have ever read.- Bill GatesThis is a jaw-dropping research work. Subtitled as A History of Violence and Humanity, this book by Steven Pinker is a chronological and statistical exploration of the old and new society based on the psychological and strictly scientific analysis of social and personal behavior of human.1000+ pages and very simple language, this work puts into light the declination of Violence in the last 2500 years.A must read for secularist, social scientists, historians, psychologist and those who are interested in public welfare.

Except for an expert historian, others think we are heading toward a violent society, but not. We are leading to a peaceful society. This point is proved here.

Its a huge book with several pages. Very interesting. But the print size is smaller than new paper print size. It will be harder to read if you dont have strong eye sight. My rating is only for the print size not for the content of the book.

Super read! Excited! Though not delivered well, it was a bit dirty and folded. You buy new books because its new and clean not dirty. Noramlly all prodcuts are delivered well and i get a delivery once a week but something went wrong this time. No need for a re-issue.