The darker angels of our nature : refuting the Pinker theory of history & violence

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The darker angels of our nature : refuting the Pinker theory of history & violence

edited by Philip Dwyer and Mark Micale

Bloomsbury Academic, 2022

  • : pb

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The darker angels of our nature : refuting the Pinker theory of history and violence

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"Reprinted 2021 (twice)"--T.p. verso

Includes bibliographical references (p. [337]-373) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

In The Better Angels of Our Nature Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker argued that modern history has witnessed a dramatic decline in human violence of every kind, and that in the present we are experiencing the most peaceful time in human history. But what do top historians think about Pinker’s reading of the past? Does his argument stand up to historical analysis? In The Darker Angels of our Nature, seventeen scholars of international stature evaluate Pinker’s arguments and find them lacking. Studying the history of violence from Japan and Russia to Native America, Medieval England and the Imperial Middle East, these scholars debunk the myth of non-violent modernity. Asserting that the real story of human violence is richer, more interesting and incomparably more complex than Pinker’s sweeping, simplified narrative, this book tests, and bests, ‘fake history’ with expert knowledge.

Table of Contents

Preface List of Illustrations List of Contributors 1. Steven Pinker and the Nature of Violence in History Philip Dwyer and Mark Micale Part One: Interpretations 2. The Inner Demons of The Better Angels of Our Nature Dan Smail 3. The Use and Abuse of Statistics in Writing the History of Violence Dag Lindström 4. Progress and Its Contradictions: Human Rights, Inequality, and Violence Eric D. Weitz 5. Pinker’s Technocratic Neoliberalism, and Why It Matters David Bell 6. Steven Pinker, Norbert Elias and the Civilizing Process Philip Dwyer and Elizabeth Roberts-Pedersen Part Two: Periods 7. Steven Pinker’s ‘Prehistoric Anarchy’: A Bioarchaeological Critique Linda Fibiger 8. Getting Medieval on Steven Pinker: Violence and Medieval England Sara M. Butler 9. History, Violence and the Enlightenment Philip Dwyer Part Three: Places 10. The Complexity of History: Russia and Steven Pinker’s Thesis Nancy Kollmann 11. Necrology of Angels: Violence in Japanese History as a Lens of Critique Michael Wert 12. British Imperial Violence and the Middle East Caroline Elkins Part Four: Themes 13. A History of Violence and Indigeneity: Pinker and the Native Americas Matthew Restall 14. The Rise and Rise of Sexual Violence Joanna Bourke 15. Where Angels Fear to Tread: Racialized Policing, Mass Incarceration, and Executions as State Violence in the Post-Civil Rights Era Robert T. Chase 16. The Better Angels of Which Nature? Violence and Environmental History in the Modern World Corey Ross 17. On Cool Reason and Hot-Blooded Impulses? Violence and the History of Emotion Susan K. Morrissey Part Five: Coda 18. Pinker and Contemporary Historical Consciousness Mark Micale Bibliography Index

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