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Humankind : a hopeful history Cover Image Book Book

Humankind : a hopeful history / Rutger Bregmenn ; translated from the Dutch by Elizabeth Manton and Erica Moore.

Bregman, Rutger, 1988- (author.). Manton, Elizabeth, (translator.). Moore, Erica, (translator.).

Summary:

It's a belief that unites the left and right, psychologists and philosophers, writers and historians. It drives the headlines that surround us and the laws that touch our lives. From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Dawkins, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought. Human beings, we're taught, are by nature selfish and governed by self-interest. Humankind makes a new argument: that it is realistic, as well as revolutionary, to assume that people are good. The instinct to cooperate rather than compete, trust rather than distrust, has an evolutionary basis going right back to the beginning of Homo sapiens. By thinking the worst of others, we bring out the worst in our politics and economics too. In this major book, internationally bestselling author Rutger Bregman takes some of the world's most famous studies and events and reframes them, providing a new perspective on the last 200,000 years of human history. From the real-life Lord of the Flies to the Blitz, a Siberian fox farm to an infamous New York murder, Stanley Milgram's Yale shock machine to the Stanford prison experiment, Bregman shows how believing in human kindness and altruism can be a new way to think - and act as the foundation for achieving true change in our society. It is time for a new view of human nature.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780316418539
  • ISBN: 0316418536
  • Physical Description: xviii, 461 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
  • Edition: First English-language edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2020.

Content descriptions

General Note:
First published in 2019 in the Netherlands as De Meeste Mensen Deugen by De Corresponent.
Bibliography, etc. Note:
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Search for related items by subject

Subject: Human beings.
Philosophical anthropology.
Human behavior.

Available copies

  • 8 of 10 copies available at BC Interlibrary Connect. (Show)
  • 1 of 1 copy available at Prince Rupert Library.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 10 total copies.
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Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Holdable? Status Due Date
Prince Rupert Library 128 Breg (Text) 33294002086312 Adult Non-Fiction Volume hold Available -
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  • Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2020 April #1
    "There is a persistent myth that by their very nature, humans are selfish, aggressive, and quick to panic." British historian and journalist Bregman disagrees, making a convincing case that we're not so bad. In Lord of the Flies, a group of boys stranded on an island descend into savagery. The author turns up a real-life version that turned out much better: In 1965, six teenagers were marooned on a tiny, waterless islet, and they cooperated until their rescue 15 months later, when they were alive and healthy. Bregman's fascinating examination of pro-depravity evidence reveals an alarming amount of error. Readers may remember the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese; newspapers reported that 38 bystanders heard her screams and did nothing. Journalistic incompetence, writes the author; multiple neighbors came to her aid. Iconic scientific studies reveal crippling flaws. In a 1971 prison study at Stanford, researchers divided students into "prisoners" and "guards." Within days, the guards became abusive. Bregman reveals that it was a "hoax"; researchers instructed the guards to behave badly. At the peak of human depravity lies Nazi administrator Adolph Eichmann. At his 1961 trial, he portr ayed himself as a desk-bound bureaucrat carrying out his boss's orders. The phrase "the banality of evil" entered the lexicon. Subsequent research in Nazi archives revealed Eichmann as a psychopath. After cogently laying out the problem, the author turns to solutions. For example, 20% of those discharged from Norway's cushy prisons return in two years, the world's lowest recidivism rate and a big money-saver; in the U.S., it's 60%. Experts agree that oppressive prisons increase crime, but reform efforts invariably fizzle; "coddling" criminals outrages most Americans. Bregman describes businesses without bosses, schools in which teachers assume that students want to learn, and local governments in which citizens exert genuine power wisely. Readers may wonder why these are not spreading like wildfire. Since good studies show that deeply held false beliefs remain immune to evidence, human depravity must qualify. A powerful argument in favor of human virtue that will probably not catch on. (b/w illustrations) Copyright Kirkus 2020 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
  • Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2020 April #1

    Dutch historian Bregman (Utopia for Realists) puts a positive spin on human behavior in this intriguing survey of politics, literature, psychology, sociology, and philosophy. To prove his hypothesis that humankind is basically good, Bregman reevaluates some of the most entrenched cultural narratives suggesting otherwise. For example, six Tongan boys shipwrecked on an island in the 1960s didn't beat each other senseless—à la William Golding's characters in The Lord of the Flies—but lived harmoniously until their rescue a year later. Bregman also revisits the Stanford Prison Experiment (researchers muddled the study by ensuring that students chosen as guards would be cruel to those posing as prisoners) and the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese, in which 37 bystanders supposedly heard her cries for help but failed to intervene (Bregman offers evidence that several people actually did call the police, and that one of Kitty's neighbors ran directly to her aid). He even attempts to fold the Holocaust into his theory, but his explanation that the Nazis "believed they were on the right side of history" fails to either hearten or persuade. Overall, however, this intelligent and reassuring chronicle disproves much received wisdom about the dark side of human nature. Readers looking for solace in uncertain times will find it here. (June)

    Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly.
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