Humankind: A hopeful history by Rutger Bregman

Author: Rutger Bregman. Review by Reg Naulty

'Our Covid-cursed and globally-warming times need a book like this. It puts faith in humanity on a firm foundation.' | Photo: Humankind book cover

This book presents scientific evidence showing that it is reasonable to hold a more realistic and positive view of human nature than is common. Many environmentalists see humans as a destructive plague on the earth. And the news gives a dispiriting picture of human beings. But Rutger Bregman points out that every day for the last twenty-five years the news could instead have truthfully reported that extreme poverty had come down by 137,000 since yesterday.

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