Men, superstition, anarchy, isolated communities and absurd ideologies rightly
get the blame for much of our violence, which Pinker feels is usually
“strategic” rather than innate and inevitable. But the rise of the state,
global commerce, feminisation (the rising influence of women), a
cosmopolitan global village and our increasing reason are making us kill
each other much less.

This still leaves Pinker with the thorny problem of the 20th century. Was it
random, fluke or peak? He makes a convincing case that the killing rate as a
proportion of global population was actually very low. He concludes that the
century’s death toll saw a relatively moderate escalation that is now being
reversed. I’m basically on the side of Pinker and the angels, but not
without some apprehension. What if people use their reason to find mass
violence strategic again?

Pinker is not the only academic claiming that violence and war are declining
but he has probably written the biggest book on the subject and crammed the
views of most of his fellow advocates into its pages. As such, this is a
valuable book whether or not you agree with his argument.

Pinker is an engaging and accessible theorist with an abundance of wit,
anecdote and fact. But by the end of 700 pages, I had serious data fatigue
and experiment overload. His political science is simplified Hobbes. The
history is deeply Eurocentric because the rest of the world lacks data. The
statistics are too complex for most of us and the last two chapters of
psychology experiments were a slog.

If Pinker is right and we really are getting less violent, then we have
cracked one of the three biggest issues facing our species, leaving only
social justice and environmental sustainability.

But, of course, turkeys usually think things are going well in early December,
only to get a shock at Christmas.

The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and Its
Causes

Steven Pinker

Allen Lane, £30, 802pp