The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined is a 2011 book by Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker

Steven Arthur Pinker is a Canadian-American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, linguist and popular science author...

 arguing that violence in the world, especially the western part, has declined both in the long run and in the short. He also suggests explanations of why this has happened.

The phrase "the better angels of our nature" stems from the last words of Lincoln's first inaugural address

Lincoln's first inaugural address

Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address was delivered by President Abraham Lincoln, on Monday, March 4, 1861, as part of his taking of the oath of office for his first term as the sixteenth President of the United States...

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Chapters

1. A Foreign Country
2. The Pacification Process
3. The Civilizing Process
4. The Humanitarian Revolution
5. The Long Peace
6. The New Peace
7. The Rights Revolutions
8. Inner Demons
9. Better Angels
10. On Angels' Wings

Influences

Due to the highly interdisciplinary nature of the book Pinker relies heavily on the works of political scientist John Mueller

John Mueller

John E. Mueller is a political scientist in the field of international relations as well as a scholar of the history of dance. He is recognized for his ideas concerning "the banality of ethnic war" and the theory that major world conflicts are quickly becoming obsolete.-Career:He received his A.B...

 and sociologist Norbert Elias

Norbert Elias

Norbert Elias was a German sociologist of Jewish descent, who later became a British citizen.-Biography:...

, among others. The extent of Elias' influence on Pinker can be adduced from the title of Chapter 3 of The Better Angels of Our Nature, which is taken from the title of Elias' seminal The Civilizing Process

The Civilizing Process

The book The Civilizing Process written by German sociologist Norbert Elias is an influential work in sociology and Elias' most important work. It was first published in 1939 in German as Über den Prozeß der Zivilisation. Because of the World War it was virtually ignored, but republished in the...

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Positive

Peter Singer

Peter Singer

Peter Albert David Singer is an Australian philosopher who is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics at the University of Melbourne...

 positively reviewed The Better Angels of Our Nature in The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

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Singer concludes: "[It] is 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."

Negative

John Gray

John Gray

-Born 18th century:*John Gray , member of the North Carolina General Assembly*John Gray , president of the Bank of Montreal...

 gave a critical review of the book in Prospect.

Elizabeth Kolbert

Elizabeth Kolbert

Elizabeth Kolbert is an American journalist and author. She is best known for her 2006 book Field Notes from a Catastrophe, and as an observer and commentator on environmentalism for The New Yorker magazine.-Youth and education:...

 wrote a critical review in The New Yorker

The New Yorker

The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

, and Pinker has posted a reply.