Publisher's Synopsis
'If you only read one book this year, make it this one' CATHY RENTZENBRINK
'This book must be read by as many people as possible - only when people change their view of human nature will they begin to believe in the possibility of building a better world' GRACE BLAKELEY
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.
On winning Blackwell's Non-Fiction Book of the Year Rutger said: "I’m so honoured that my book Humankind is Blackwell’s Non-Fiction Book of the Year. 2020 has been an extraordinary year: both terrifying and hopeful. We’ve seen radical ideas, previously dismissed as unrealistic and unreasonable, move into the mainstream. We’ve witnessed the resilience of booksellers, those who spread the ideas that may be dismissed now, but might change the world tomorrow. It means the world to me that the wonderful people of Blackwell’s have picked my book Humankind as their non-fiction book of the year."
