Review: The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined by Steven Pinker


My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I delayed reading this book for a long time based solely on the takedown offered by Chris Ryan in his book Sex at Dawn. After getting a steep discount on Better Angels and tearing through it in a few days, while I think Ryan’s criticisms do have merit, they really only apply to one narrow sliver of the whole story (specifically, speculation on the level of violence among pre-historic humans).

T...