The Better Angels of Our Nature

Steven Pinker

Why I looked at this book

There is a tendency to see things as getting worse, and to think life was better in the past. When we take an objective look though, when we actually measure what has changed, it turns out that most things are improving. On the other hand we don't seem to be getting any closer to the life of leisure (of the sort predicted by Keynes in 1930) that it seems this ought to bring. I'm hoping this book will shed some light on this puzzle.