If you're curious about the trajectory of human violence and its decline, Steven Pinker's "The Better Angels of Our Nature" might intrigue you. Pinker carefully dispels the myth of a particularly violent modern era, using data and a multidisciplinary approach to reveal an uplifting trend towards peace. It's a deep, evidence-based dive into the better side of humanity's nature, offering a hopeful perspective on our societal evolution.

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• Royal Society Science Book Prize Nominee for Science Books (2012)
• Julia Ward Howe Prize Nominee (2012)
• Best Book of Ideas Prize Nominee (2012)
• Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction Nominee (2012)
• Cundill History Prize Nominee for Recognition of Excellence (2012)

We've all asked, "What is the world coming to?" But we seldom ask, "How bad was the world in the past?" In this startling new book, the bestselling cognitive scientist Steven Pinker shows that the world of the past was much worse. In fact, we may be living in the most peaceable era yet. Evidence of a bloody history has always been around us: the genocides in the Old Testament and crucifixions in the New; the gory mutilations in Shakespeare and Grimm; the British monarchs who beheaded their relatives and the American founders who dueled with their rivals. Now the decline in these brutal practices can be quantified. Tribal warfare was nine times as deadly as war and genocide in the 20th century. The murder rate in medieval Europe was more than thirty times what it is today. Slavery, sadistic punishments, and frivolous executions were unexceptionable features of life for millennia, then were suddenly abolished. Wars between developed countries have vanished, and even in the developing world, wars kill a fraction of the numbers they did a few decades ago. Rape, hate crimes, deadly riots, child abuse - all substantially down. How could this have happened, if human nature has not changed? Pinker argues that the key to explaining the decline of violence is to understand the inner demons that incline us toward violence and the better angels that steer

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