The Book Prize Index

The Better Angels of our Nature: A History of Violence and Humanity

Steven Pinker

From Goodreads: Selected by *The New York Times Book Review* as a Notable Book of the Year The author of *The New York Times* bestseller *The Stuff* of Thought offers a controversial history of violence. Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as *New York Times* bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millennia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species's existence. For most of history, war, slavery, infanticide, child abuse, assassinations, pogroms, gruesome punishments, deadly quarrels, and genocide were ordinary features of life.

HistoryHistory · medium confidenceHistory81 signalsLlm Classifier: History -> HistoryKeyword Classifier: American History -> American HistoryKeyword Classifier: Business & Economics -> Business & EconomicsCrime, Policing & Violence

Award History

0 wins · 3 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-FictionMajor2012FinalistSecondary source
Cundill History PrizeMajor2012FinalistSecondary source
Royal Society Science Book PrizeMajor2012ShortlistSecondary source
View all award history (3)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    Violence has been diminishing for millennia, so the present may be the most peaceful time in humanity’s existence.

    Model confidence 80%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    45 / 100 academic

    Trade / academic crossover

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 62%.