The Better Angels of Our Nature — Steven Pinker — Similar Books & Further Reading

Books, articles, and essays for further reading

• Breakdown of will. — Ainslie, G.
• Children and prejudice. — Aboud, F. E.
• The code of the street: Violence, decency, and the moral life of the inner city. — Anderson, E.
• Sex, drugs, and body counts: The politics of numbers in global crime and conflict. — Andreas, P., and Greenhill, K. M.,
• In gods we trust: The evolutionary landscape of supernatural agency. — Atran, S.
• The evolution of cooperation. — Axelrod, R.
• Evil: Inside human violence and cruelty. — Baumeister, R. F.
• The first total war: Napoleon’s Europe and the birth of warfare as we know it. — Bell, D. A.
• An intimate history of killing: Face-to-face killing in 20th-century warfare. — Bourke, J.
• How humans evolved — Boyd, R., and Silk, J. B.
• Violent conflicts 1400 A.D. to the present in different regions of the world. — Brecke, P.
• Slaughter of the innocents: Child abuse through the ages and today. — Breiner, S. J.
• Hierarchy, history, and human nature: The social origins of historical consciousness. — Brown, D. E.
• Biology at work. — Browne, K.
• The dangerous passion: Why jealousy is as necessary as love and sex. — Buss, D. M.
• The murderer next door: Why the mind is designed to kill. — Buss, D. M.
• The myth of the rational voter: Why democracies choose bad policies. — Caplan, B.
• The intellectuals and the masses: Pride and prejudice among the literary intelligentsia, 1880–1939. — Carey, J.
• Genes, peoples, and languages. — Cavalli-Sforza, L. L.
• Why not kill them all? The logic and prevention of mass political murder. — Chirot, D., and McCauley, C.
• Rational ritual: Culture, coordination, and common knowledge. — Chwe, M. S.-Y.
• The 10,000 year explosion: How civilization accelerated human evolution. — Cochran, G., and Harpending, H.
• The bottom billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it. — Collier, P.
• The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture. — J. H. Barkow, L. Cosmides, and J. Tooby, eds.,
• No right turn: Conservative politics in a liberal America. — Courtwright, D. T.
• How terrorism ends: Understanding the decline and demise of terrorist campaigns. — Cronin, A. K.
• Heroes, rogues, and lovers: Testosterone and behavior. — Dabbs, J. M., and Dabbs, M. G.
• Homicide. — Daly, M., and Wilson, M.
• The truth about Cinderella: A Darwinian view of parental love. — Daly, M., and Wilson, M.
• The kiss of Lamourette: Reflections in cultural history. — Darnton, R.
• Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. — Damasio, A. R.
• The selfish gene — Dawkins, R.
• Good natured: The origins of right and wrong in humans and other animals. — de Waal, F. B. M.
• The age of empathy: Nature’s lessons for a kinder society. — de Waal, F. B. M.
• Chimpanzee politics: Power and sex among the apes. — de Waal, F. B. M.
• Bonobo: The forgotten ape. — de Waal, F. B. M.
• The emotional life of nations. — deMause, L.
• Rights from wrongs: A secular theory of the origins of rights. — Dershowitz, A. M.
• Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. — Diamond, J. M.
• The progress paradox: How life gets better while people feel worse. — Easterbrook, G.
• Civilizations, empires, and wars. — Eckhardt, W.
• Order without law: How neighbors settle disputes. — Ellickson, R. C.
• The adapted mind: Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture. — J. Barkow, L. Cosmides, and J. Tooby, eds.,
• Survival of the prettiest: The science of beauty. — Etcoff, N. L
• The republic of suffering: Death and the American Civil War. — Faust, D.
• The war of the world: Twentieth-century conflict and the descent of the West. — Ferguson, N.
• Structures of social life: The four elementary forms of human relations. — Fiske, A. P.
• What is intelligence? — Flynn, J. R.
• Passions within reason: The strategic role of the emotions. — Frank, R. H.
• The bonobos: Behavior, ecology, and conservation. — Furuichi, T., and Thompson, J. M.
• Future babble: Why expert predictions fail—and why we believe them anyway. — Gardner, D.
• Counter-Enlightenments: From the eighteenth century to the present. — Garrard, G.
• War in human civilization. — Gat, A.
• Humanity: A moral history of the twentieth century. — Glover, J.
• The improving state of the world: Why we’re living longer, healthier, more comfortable lives on a cleaner planet. — Goklany, I. M.
• Worse than war: Genocide, eliminationism, and the ongoing assault on humanity. — Goldhagen, D. J.
• Winning the war on war: The surprising decline in armed conflict worldwide. — Goldstein, J. S.
• Roots of empathy: Changing the world child by child. — Gordon, M.
• The chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of behavior. — Goodall, J.
• Bully for brontosaurus. — Gould, S. J.
• Toward the light of liberty: The struggles for freedom and rights that made the modern Western world. — Grayling, A. C.
• Good to eat: Riddles of food and culture. — Harris, M.
• The moral landscape: How science can determine human values. — Harris, S.
• Some we love, some we hate, some we eat: Why it’s so hard to think straight about animals. — Herzog, H.
• A history of childhood. — Heywood, C.
• Race in the making: Cognition, culture, and the child’s construction of human kinds. — Hirschfeld, A. O.
• The lessons of history. — Howard, M.
• The invention of peace and the reinvention of war. — Howard, M.
• Liberation or catastrophe? Reflections on the history of the twentieth century. — Howard, M.
• Swearing: A social history of foul language, oaths, and profanity in English. — Hughes, G.
• Inventing human rights: A history. — Hunt, L.
• Mirroring people: The new science of how we connect with others. — Iacoboni, M.
• Overconfidence and war: The havoc and glory of positive illusions. — Johnson, D. D. P.
• New and old wars: Organized violence in a global era. — Kaldor, M.
• Bad acts and guilty minds: Conundrums of criminal law. — Katz, L.
• War before civilization: The myth of the peaceful savage. — Keeley, L. H.
• A history of warfare. — Keegan, J.
• Empathy and the novel. — Keen, S.
• Getting better: Why global development is succeeding—and how we can improve the world even more. — Kenny, C.
• Blood and soil: A world history of genocide and extermination from Sparta to Darfur. — Kiernan, B.
• The philosophy of moral development: Moral stages and the idea of justice. — Kohlberg, L.
• Nonviolence: Twenty-five lessons from the history of a dangerous idea. — Kurlansky, M.
• Constant battles: The myth of the noble savage and a peaceful past. — LeBlanc, S. A.
• Devils, demons, and witchcraft. — Lehner, E., and Lehner, J.
• On nuclear terrorism. — Levi, M. A.
• The arc of war: Origins, escalation, and transformation. — Levy, J. S., and Thompson, W. R.
• What went wrong? The clash between Islam and modernity in the Middle East. — Lewis, B.
• The reckless mind: Intellectuals in politics. — Lilla, M.
• War and reconciliation: Reason and emotion in conflict resolution. — Long, W. J., and Brecke,
• The blunted sword: The erosion of military power in modern world politics. — Luard, E.
• Evolution and the theory of games. — Maynard Smith, J.
• Games, sex, and evolution. — Maynard Smith, J.
• Murder in New York City. — Monkkonen, E.
• Atomic obsession: Nuclear alarmism from Hiroshima to Al-Qaeda. — Mueller, J.
• The remnants of war. — Mueller, J.
• Overblown: How politicians and the terrorism industry inflate national security threats, and why we believe them. — Mueller, J.
• Reappraising the right: The past and future of American conservatism. — Nash, G. H.
• Evil genes: Why Rome fell, Hitler rose, Enron failed, and my sister stole my mother’s boyfriend. — Oakley, B.
• The enlightenment. — Outram, D.
• Why nations arm. — Payne, J. L.
• The tradition of non-use of nuclear weapons. — Paul, T. V.
• A history of force: Exploring the worldwide movement against habits of coercion, bloodshed, and mayhem. — Payne, J. L.
• The language instinct. — Pinker, S.
• How the mind works. — Pinker, S.
• Words and rules: The ingredients of language. — Pinker, S.
• The blank slate: The modern denial of human nature. — Pinker, S.
• The stuff of thought: Language as a window into human nature. — Pinker, S.
• The moral instinct. — Pinker, S.
• A problem from hell: America and the age of genocide. — Power, S.
• Why are so many Americans in prison? — Raphael, S., and Stoll, M. A.
• The origins of virtue: Human instincts and the evolution of cooperation. — Ridley, M.
• The rational optimist: How prosperity evolves. — Ridley, M.
• The empathic civilization: The race to global consciousness in a world in crisis. — Rifkin, J.
• The case for rational optimism. — Robinson, F. S.
• Risk: A practical guide for deciding what’s really safe and what’s really dangerous in the world around you. — Ropeik, D., and Gray, G.
• Explaining Hitler: The search for the origins of his evil. — Rosenbaum, R.
• American homicide. — Roth, R.
• The way we were? The myths and realities of America’s student achievement. — Rothstein, R.
• Triangulating peace: Democracy, interdependence, and international organizations. — Russett, B., and Oneal, J.
• The serial killer files: The who, what, where, how, and why of the world’s most terrifying murderers. — Schechter, H.
• Savage pastimes: A cultural history of violent entertainment. — Schechter, H.
• Bloody revenge: Emotions, nationalism, and war. — Scheff, T. J.
• The strategy of conflict. — Schelling, T. C.
• Micromotives and macrobehavior. — Schelling, T. C.
• Strategies of commitment, and other essays. — Schelling, T. C.
• Identity and violence: The illusion of destiny. — Sen, A.
• The science of good and evil: Why people cheat, gossip, care, share, and follow the golden rule. — Shermer, M.
• Rethinking life and death: The collapse of our traditional ethics. — Singer, P.
• Free-range kids: Giving our children the freedom we had without going nuts with worry. — Skenazy, L.
• Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. — D. Kahneman, P. Slovic, and A. Tversky
• The Sokal hoax: The sham that shook the academy. — Sokal, A.D.
• A conflict of visions: Ideological origins of political struggles. — Sowell, T.
• Race and culture: A world view. — Sowell, T.
• Migrations and cultures: A world view. — Sowell, T.
• Conquests and cultures: An international history. — Sowell, T.
• Vegetarianism: A history. — Spencer, C.
• A history of murder: Personal violence in Europe from the Middle Ages to the present. — Spierenburg, P.
• The bloodless revolution: A cultural history of vegetarianism from 1600 to modern times. — Stuart, T.
• Positive illusions: Creative self-deception and the healthy mind. — Taylor, S. E
• Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. — Thaler, R. H., and Sunstein, C. R.
• Witch hunts: A history of the witch persecutions in Europe and North America. — Thurston, R.
• Churchill’s empire: The world that made him and the world he made. — Toye, R.
• Hitler’s thirty days to power: January 1933. — Turner, H. A.
• Final solutions: Mass killing and genocide in the 20th century. — Valentino, B.
• The culture of war. — van Creveld, M.
• The war puzzle revisited. — Vasquez, J. A.
• Before the dawn: Recovering the lost history of our ancestors. — Wade, N.
• The good news is the bad news is wrong. — Wattenberg, B. J.
• Bernard Shaw on war. — Wearing, J. P., ed.
• The seduction of unreason: The intellectual romance with fascism from Nietzsche to postmodernism. — Wolin, R.
• Informalization: Manners and emotions since 1890. — Wouters, C.
• Catching fire: How cooking made us human. — Wrangham, R. W.
• Nonzero: The logic of human destiny. — Wright, R.
• Pricing the priceless child: The changing social value of children. — Zelizer, V. A.
• The purchase of intimacy. — Zelizer, V. A.
• The Lucifer effect: Understanding how good people turn evil. — Zimbardo, P. G.