Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman (PDF)

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AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERThe “lively” (The New Yorker), “convincing” (Forbes), and “riveting pick-me-up we all need right now” (People) that proves humanity thrives in a crisis and that our innate kindness and cooperation have been the greatest factors in our long-term success as a species.If there is one belief that has united the left and the right, psychologists and philosophers, ancient thinkers and modern ones, it is the tacit assumption that humans are bad. It’s a notion that drives newspaper headlines and guides the laws that shape our lives. From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Pinker, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought. Human beings, we’re taught, are by nature selfish and governed primarily by self-interest.But what if it isn’t true? International bestseller Rutger Bregman provides new perspective on the past 200,000 years of human history, setting out to prove that we are hardwired for kindness, geared toward cooperation rather than competition, and more inclined to trust rather than distrust one another. In fact this instinct has a firm evolutionary basis going back to the beginning of Homo sapiens. From the real-life Lord of the Flies to the solidarity in the aftermath of the Blitz, the hidden flaws in the Stanford prison experiment to the true story of twin brothers on opposite sides who helped Mandela end apartheid, Bregman shows us that believing in human generosity and collaboration isn’t merely optimistic—it’s realistic. Moreover, it has huge implications for how society functions. When we think the worst of people, it brings out the worst in our politics and economics. But if we believe in the reality of humanity’s kindness and altruism, it will form the foundation for achieving true change in society, a case that Bregman makes convincingly with his signature wit, refreshing frankness, and memorable storytelling.”The Sapiens of 2020.” —The Guardian”Humankind made me see humanity from a fresh perspective.” —Yuval Noah Harari, author of the #1 bestseller SapiensLonglisted for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in NonfictionOne of the Washington Post’s 50 Notable Nonfiction Works in 2020

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐My favorite scholar is the later American Jesuit Renaissance specialist and cultural historian Walter J. Ong (1912-2003; Ph.D. in English, Harvard University, 1955). In his mature writings from the early 1950s onward, he worked out an expansive evolutionary account of our cultural history.In his pioneering work about the print culture that emerged in Western culture after the Gutenberg printing press emerged in the mid-1450s, Ong carefully delineated an account of early modern and modern Western culture.Now, as a cultural historian, Ong never tries to construct a conceptual model that would enable him to say any specificity what comes next. However, if we were to think of Ong as constructing a conceptual model for thinking about whatever may come next, then we would have to say that Ong typically tries to sound hopeful about the developments that he describes – and whatever may come next. For Ong, not sounding hopeful is not an option.Similarly, for Ong, not sounding evolutionary is not an option. For Ong, by definition, evolutionary thought is not cyclic thought. For example, the account of creation in seven days in Genesis is not cyclic thought, but linear (and hence evolutionary) thought. Incidentally, in the seven-day account of creation in Genesis, God is portrayed as saying each day that his work of creation was good, including of course his work of creating humankind. We should note here that Judaism does not have a doctrine of original sin; that doctrine is a specifically Christian doctrine – a doctrine that both Ong and the late French Jesuit paleontologist and religious evolutionary thinker Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) essentially disregard. See, for example, Teilhard de Chardin’s posthumously published book The Human Phenomenon, translated by Sarah Appleton-Weber (Brighton and Portland: Sussex Academic Press, 1999; orig. French ed., 1955). Ong never tired of referring to Teilhard de Chardin. See the indexes in Ong’s various books for specific page references to Teilhard de Chardin.For an accessible account of ancient Jewish thought in the Hebrew Bible, see the American Catholic Thomas Cahill’s 1998 book The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels (New York: Nan A. Talese/ Doubleday).Now, Ong eventually worked with the terminology of primary oral culture (and primary orality, including all pre-historic hunter-gatherer nomad cultures and pre-historic and historic agrarian cultures), residually oral cultures (such as ancient and medieval cultures in Western culture and elsewhere), print culture (in early modern and modern Western culture), and secondary oral culture (and secondary orality, including our contemporary culture). For Ong, our contemporary secondary oral culture is here to stay for the foreseeable future.However, for Ong, our contemporary secondary culture is not the same as primary oral culture. If it were, then Ong would be embracing a cyclic account of cultural history, which he clearly does not want to do.Nevertheless, secondary orality resonates deep within the human psyche — in our collective unconscious memory of primary orality and thus with our pre-historic human ancestors, including not only our pre-historic settled farming ancestors, but also our pre-historic hunter-gatherer nomad ancestors. However, even though Ong did not choose to make any specific predictions about future developments, he did sound characteristically hopeful about the future, perhaps most notably in his seminal 1967 book The Presence of the Word: Some Prolegomena for Cultural and Religious History (New Haven and London: Yale University Press), the expanded published version of Ong’s 1964 Terry Lectures at Yale University.This brings me to the Dutch journalist Rutger Bregman’s account of our pre-historic hunter-gatherer nomad ancestors in his aptly titled 2020 book Humankind: A Hopeful History, translated from the Dutch by Elizabeth Manton and Erica Moore (New York, Boston, London: Little, Brown; orig. Dutch ed., 2019).Because the development of phonetic alphabetic writing systems is the pivotal turning point in Ong’s account of our Western cultural history, we should note that Bregman also mentions the development of writing systems in passing (pages 79, 108, and 111), even though writing is not included in the index in his book (pages 453-461). Ong’s most carefully concise discussion of writing systems can be found in his 1982 book Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (London and New York: Methuen, esp. pages 83-93).Now, Bregman also says, “Some theologists [sic] even suspect that the story of the Fall alludes to the shift to organized agriculture, as starkly characterized by Genesis 3: ‘By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread’” (page 103).Incidentally, in the book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible, the ancient Israelites are portrayed as desert nomads, as Cahill describes them in the subtitle of his 1998 book, mentioned above. For forty years, we are told, they lived in the desert and gathered manna each day. In effect, they are hunter-gatherer nomads.To this day, many Christians pray to God to give them their daily bread. In effect, they are keeping alive the spirit of the ancient Israelite hunter-gatherer nomads who lived in the desert and gathered manna each day.Now, I was most impressed with Bregman’s remarkably astute discussion of play (esp. pages 63, 69, 70 [Copycats play at being copycats], 86, and 144 – pages not listed in the index item on play, where only pages 282-288 and 294-295 are listed). Yes, to be sure, Bregman does even title chapter 14 “Homo ludens” (pages 279-295).In it, on page 283, the Dutch journalist Bregman pays homage to the Dutch historian Johan Huizinga’s book titled in English Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1950; prepared from the 1944 German edition published in Switzerland). In Huizinga’s 1938 “Foreword” (pages ix-x), he says, “For many years the conviction has grown upon me that civilization arises and unfolds in and as play. Traces of such an opinion are to be found in my writings ever since 1903” (page ix).Now, in Ong’s 1981 book Fighting for Life: Contest, Sexuality, and Consciousness (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, pages 18, 25, 33, 44-45, 133, and 170), the published version of his 1979 Messenger Lectures at Cornell University, he also pays homage to Huizinga’s book Homo Ludens: The Play-Element in Culture.But also see Ong’s splendid “Preface” (pages 9-14) to the American edition of the German Jesuit Hugo Rahner’s book translated into English as Man at Play, translated by Brian Battershaw and Edward Quinn (New York: Herder and Herder).Ong’s 1967 “Preface” is reprinted as “Preface to Man at Play (1967)” in the 2002 600-page anthology An Ong Reader: Challenges for Further Inquiry (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, pages 345-348).Bregman ends his book with “Epilogue: Ten Rules to Live By” (pages 379-397). In spirit, his ten rules reminded me of Timothy Snyder’s short 2017 book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (New York: Tim Duggan Books/ Crown Publishing Group).For a bibliography of Ong’s 400 or so publications (not counting reprintings and translations as separate publications), see Thomas M. Walsh’s “Walter J. Ong, S.J.: A Bibliography 1929-2006” in the 2011 book Language, Culture, and Identity: The Legacy of Walter J. Ong, S.J., edited by Sara van den Berg and Thomas M. Walsh (New York: Hampton Press, pages 185-245).

⭐The quote on the page before “Prologue” is by Anton Chekhov: “Man will become better when you show him what he is like”. Following this is the author’s statement that this is a book about the idea, which the author termed a radical idea, that most people, deep down, are pretty decent.To expound this “radical” idea, the author presents a number of investigations of historical events that support it. These include the finding that the majority of soldiers in the two World Wars did not shoot, the rescue of Sanne and her toddler by bystanders, soldiers of both sides of the conflict came out of the trenches to celebrate Christmas in 1914, and the twin brothers Constand and Abraham Viljoen saved South Africa from the brink of Civil War and helped end apartheid in 1993. On the stories and experiments that purport to show human beings are basically bad, including the Stanford Experiment by Philip Zimbardo, Stanley Milgram and the Shock Machine, the death of Susan Genovese as reported by the news, the destruction of Easter Island, the broken-window theory, etc., the author went over the mega-analysis and study-over-studies that showed the fallacies of the assumptions in some of these experiments and the biased and selective reporting of the newspapers and magazines which tainted the results. Out of the experience of writing this book, the author offers the readers his ten rules to live by, which he believes will lead to a more hopeful world.While I am glad to learn of the many uplifting stories and believe that most people deep down are kind and decent, I have to admit that I do not feel more hopeful about the future of humankind after reading the book. Although it is heart-warming to learn that the majority of soldiers did not want to kill, it does not negate the fact that a large number of gun violence occurs in the United States, and it has been impossible for Congress, supposedly made up of highly educated and intelligent people, to pass any legislation on gun control. It was shocking that, in 2019, a former Governor told “the former guy” that he was God’s chosen one to lead the United States. In 2018, a US Senator, an avowed Christian and former preacher, told the former guy that “…you’re living up to everything I thought you would. You’re one heck of a leader and could turn out to be the greatest President”! It certainly does not bode well for legislation to combat climate change when a Senator believed there was sufficient evidence that global warming was a hoax since he could hold a snowball in his hand in February in Washington, D. C.The author seemed to have a low opinion of Machiavelli. However, it is difficult to refute Machiavelli‘s statement in “The Prince” that “Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived.“ Examples abound: Nazi Germany; January 6, 2021; prison reform in the U.S. halted by the broken-window theory; network anchors spreading Covid misinformation etc.Two rather novel ideas are advanced by the author. One is that, in real democracy, there should not be various governing hierarchies such as mayors, governors and Congress. The power should be given back to the people, who somehow should be able to govern themselves. The other idea is that present-day school structures prohibit the development of students’ innate curiosity, creativity and the new school model should be one that let the kids learn and play by themselves. Examples are given in some towns in Holland and Europe as well as Alaska and successes are claimed. Such models may have shown to be successful on small scales, but I am somewhat skeptical that they work well in large cities, states or nations.In his ten rules to live by, the author finds the golden rule (Confucius) falling short and recommends the platinum rule instead. The platinum rule is attributed to George Bernard Shaw and is a variation of the golden rule. As someone whose native language is not English, I must admit that the platinum rule as quoted by the author is not as easy to understand as the golden rule:Golden rule: “Do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you.”Platinum rule (as quoted in the book): “Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you”.Until I fully understand the Platinum rule, I’ll stick with the Golden rule.

⭐Bergman shows us in vivid detail how & why we humans are wired for kindness & helpfulness. The wide range of examples can help many different readers with different perspectives, experiences, & background; come to a common understanding.This is the insight we all need to work together across all barriers. We’re all on this world together.

⭐This is an uplifting and hopeful book which has arrived at just the right time to lift spirits and to increase solidarity. It picks interesting and varied case studies to make its points, arguing the central thesis that even in what appear to be the worse situations, humans kind nature always bobs to the surface. I am enjoying reading it, however it is not really an academic text, more a text written for the popular market. It is painted in broad brushstrokes and there is a lack of nuance. Each case study seems to follow the same story arc of an incident of human cruelty being subverted to reveal an underlying human kindness in quite an artificial way in places. For instance in introducing the horror of the German concentration camps it asks how this could have happened in one of the most wealthy and advanced countries of the world. This is inaccurate though. Germany immediately before the war was in the grip of a worldwide depression and poor through paying war reparations in the aftermath of WW1. This was part of the socio-economic situation that allowed the National Socialists to rise to power. Rutger is a great storty-teller, though not a historian. A good book, though not wholly as nuanced as it could be.

⭐An interesting read but the author didn’t convince me of mankind’s goodness. My own experience tells me that Homo puppy (author’s terminology) is anything but. He also left out of his book the sorry tale of the mutineers of the Bounty who sailed to Pitcairn island. Within a few years half of the men had been murdered by the other half, the remainder murdered by the women who sailed to Pitcairn with them, only one of the mutineers survived. And yes, this remaining mutineer did influence in a positive way the children of the mutineers born on the island who by all accounts were found living peacefully with each other 17 years after the mutineers landed there. But the mutineers did not revert to ‘homo puppy’ there, despite no longer being ‘under the lash’, no pooling resources, no co-operation, just suspicion, hatred and jealousy and finally murder most foul.Perhaps they were just a bad lot and they are the exception to the rule as espoused by the author but my experience of 70 years of other peoples selfish nature is at odds with his research.

⭐I was drawn to this book by the hype. I eagerly read the first few chapters and was impressed by the positive story of the lost boys, and agree that Lord of the Flies is actually unrealistic, in contrast to received opinion. After that, there were lots of clever anecdotes all proving the point that humans are predisposed to be positive to each other. I really liked it when Rutger took Steven Pinker down. I read Pinker’s ‘Better Angels’ book in 2012 and was completely taken in by it. I still think Pinker is right about modern society because there are lots of reliable data to prove that crime rates are falling, despite the news media’s exaggerations. However, I agree when Rutger points out that Pinker was on flimsy ground about prehistoric homicide rates.But as I read this, I kept asking “When is Rutger going to acknowledge ‘Sex at Dawn’ by Calcida Jetha & Christopher Ryan?”, but he never did.Sex at Dawn does an even more comprehensive job of counteracting Pinker. Calcida & Chris say that violence was low among prehistoric hunter-gatherers because (i) they had no fixed private property to fight over (ii) sexual freedom contributed to lower stress levels in society and (iii) plenty of room for nomadic groups to spread out and avoid resource conflicts.However, I do like Rutger’s observation that when hunter-gatherer groups met, friendliness was the norm, not rivalry, and that people probably switched groups, and so had a much wider social circle.I’d be interested to know why Rutger didn’t acknowledge this important book. (I did find one reference to “Sex at Dawn”, but it was not relevant to the point I make above).

⭐This is a wonderful book, blasting out of the water some of the biased and badly run psychological trials which claim to show humans are nasty.However it doesn’t deal with the functioning psychopaths who tend to lie and cheat their way to the top and are responsible for much of global heating. They are one in four of the European population and cause a disproportionate amount of trouble.

⭐Arrived today. I’ve only read three chapters and its a joy. Humanity really is good, its lovely to read it in black and white! Obviously I need to finish this ASAP and complete the review however, go buy it, you won’t regret it. Cogent, powerful argument backed up with meticulous research. Best buy this year.

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