One of the most important books I've read - not just this year, but ever ... For me, what's most important about The Better Angels of Our Nature are its insights into how to help achieve positive outcomes. How can we encourage a less violent, more just society, particularly for the poor? Steven Pinker shows us ways we can make those positive trajectories a little more likely. That's a contribution, not just to historical scholarship, but to the world -- Bill Gates Brilliant, mind-altering...Everyone should read this astonishing book -- David Runciman * Guardian * A supremely important book. To have command of so much research, spread across so many different fields, is a masterly achievement. Pinker convincingly demonstrates that there has been a dramatic decline in violence, and he is persuasive about the causes of that decline -- Peter Singer * New York Times * [A] sweeping new review of the history of human violence...[Pinker has] the kind of academic superbrain that can translate otherwise impenetrable statistics into a meaningful narrative of human behaviour...impeccable scholarship -- Tony Allen-Mills * Sunday Times * Written in Pinker's distinctively entertaining and clear personal style...a marvellous synthesis of science, history and storytelling -- Clive Cookson * Financial Times * A salutary reality-check...Better Angels is itself a great liberal landmark -- Marek Kohn * Independent * Pinker's scholarhsip is astounding...flawless...masterful -- Joanna Bourke * The Times * Selected by the New York Times as one of the 100 Notable Books of 2011 * New York Times *