Front cover image for Humankind : a hopeful history

Humankind : a hopeful history

Rutger Bregman (Author)
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
eBook, English, 2020
Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2020
1 online resource
9781408898963, 9781526633996, 1408898969, 152663399X
1155167586
Cover
Praise Page
Half-title page
Dedication page
Also by Rutger Bregman
Title Page
Contents
Prologue
1 A New Realism
2 The Real Lord of the Flies
Part One: The State of Nature
3 The Rise of Homo puppy
4 Colonel Marshall and the Soldiers Who Wouldn't Shoot
5 The Curse of Civilisation
6 The Mystery of Easter Island
Part Two: After Auschwitz
7 In the Basement of Stanford University
8 Stanley Milgram and the Shock Machine
9 The Death of Catherine Susan Genovese
Part Three: Why Good People Turn Bad
10 How Empathy Blinds 11 How Power Corrupts
12 What the Enlightenment Got Wrong
Part Four: A New Realism
13 The Power of Intrinsic Motivation
14 Homo ludens
15 This Is What Democracy Looks Like
Part Five: The Other Cheek
16 Drinking Tea with Terrorists
17 The Best Remedy for Hate, Injustice and Prejudice
18 When the Soldiers Came Out of the Trenches
Epilogue: Ten Rules to Live By
Acknowledgements
Notes
Index
A Note on the Author
Copyright Page