Pinker’s ‘progress’ – and the Ukraine war

In 2011, the psychology professor Steven Pinker wrote a book which attracted a lot of attention. It was entitled The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined.

His thesis was fascinating. The central idea, as summarised by The New York Times on its publication was that ‘our era is less violent, less cruel and more peaceful than any previous period of human existence’.

Now, however, ‘in a bitter irony’ (Pinker’s own words), the latest edition of that book is as we speak going to press for the first time. It is the edition in Ukrainian.