☆☆☆☆
An interesting read, not my usual type of book. It took me a while to read this book but I'm glad I persevered with it.

*** ARC provided by Netgalley via the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ***

I loved this book and found it so interesting and absorbing. It's extremely good for reminding us right now that even with everything in chaos our world is still filled with people who are inherently good and decent.

Maybe the author falls into his own trap with confirmation bias but it's an interesting perspective to look at. Would recommend and I'll be certainly reading some more on the subject.

Rutger Bregman has set out to reframe the perspective that humans are self-seeking and cruel. Instead, he tells tales of kindness and genuineness by transporting the reader through moments in history and showing us that we're not all bad, after all. Honestly, given the way 2020 has gone, this one was a properly needed tonic, a world apart from Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens, but just as enlightening.

This was the first non-fiction book that I had read in a while, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it!

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. And its roots sink deep into Western thought: from Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Pinker, the tacit assumption is that humans are bad.
Humankind makes the case for a new argument: that it is realistic, as well as revolutionary, to assume that people are good. When we think the worst of others, it brings out the worst in our politics and economics too.

Non-fiction books are often written in a manner that reminds me of a textbook - info-dumpy and dry with very little emotion. In this case, I actually loved the writing style. It was incredibly informative yet it remained engaging. The topic at hand was interesting to me as I have a tendency to think the worst in people or hesitant to place my trust in those around me, so I was intrigued into whether the book would change my mind. Sadly, it did not, but I still found the book to be a pleasant read. I particularly loved that the author discussed the methodological issues that surround some of the more infamous human behavioural studies that society holds as the gold-standard (e.g. the Stanford prison experiment). As a scientist myself, I think that it is so important to take these things into consideration before drawing definitive conclusions.

Overall, I thought that this was a super interesting read that provided some useful insights! Would definitely recommend checking it out.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

Hmm... I really wish I had this guy's optimism... Although I must say, some of his comments on WW2 really don't seem fair, verging on naive.

"And the mental devastation, then? What about the millions of traumatised victims the experts had warned about? Oddly enough, they were nowhere to be found."
If anyone has family that went through the war, they'll know that the trauma may not have put people in mental hospitals, but those poor men and women lived with the things they saw for life.

Unfortunately this put a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. I hope others will appreciate his positive outlook though.

This book is a rounded look at being human and what it means, it also looks at the traits often looked over. Kindness & cooperation are just as important as strength, intelligence and drive. Thoroughly readable and interspersed perfectly with anecdotes & the human touch to go with the science and research.

Such an important book - one I'll be thinking about for a long time after reading, and no doubt go back to. Worth the hype!

It took me a while to read Humankind but I persevered because it was just so good! It's clearly very well researched and easy to read.

This was actually phenomenal and I’m not sure that I have the words to convey just how much of a “must-read” this is!

It discusses anthropology, the human condition and psychology. It looks at the true meaning of humankind & how the vast majority of humans are kind and good natured despite the cynical view that we can’t trust anyone.

I absolutely devoured this book and highlighted so much (via kindle) and I would love a physical copy to reread! I feel like it’s something that everyone could read over and over again and take something new from it.

It’s truly brilliant and opens us up to a hope for the future while also being honest about how society is and how it can seem like we’re all alone but we’re not!

Are we too cynical about people’s motives? Are people all out to get one over on their fellow humans?This highly engaging and readable book explores events through history that help argue the case for the greater goodness in humankind.

One of those books that has an immediately obvious and appealing theme- what if people are inherently good? It apparently flies against everything we see every day in the news, media, etc but Rutger Bregman methodically, engagingly and compellingly takes real life examples we are all familiar with and views them with a new and refreshingly optimistic perspective.

I don't often read non-fiction. For the most part I'd rather escape into a story, than read about something real. But this sounded interesting, and during these times of Covid 19, I felt it was looking at something I had been thinking about myself - that people are, essentially, kind.
It's written in an easy to read way, and covers some really interesting experiments and ideas, talking about how things were when the experiments were originally run, and the problems with them.
I agree with the thoughts on the nature of the media today - it is deliberately inflammatory. It exists to provoke emotion, and it can be exhausting. I have stepped away from many news sources once again, as I can't take the endless pessimism.
I really believe in many of the things he discusses. That people respond best when they are met with kindness and understanding. That being open is better than immediately chastising someone or disagreeing with their views. That when you praise children, they do better. That educational systems at the moment are not working very well. That society was in an absolute mess before this virus.
I felt real hope, in those early days of lockdown, that the world might finally change for the better. That suddenly it was obvious who the key workers really were...the people who feed us, the people who protect us, the people who keep us well. Caring, helpful, kind professions were the ones with value. And those we rank high in society such as lawyers, bankers etc. were nowhere. I really hoped that this would lead to a huge shift, across the whole world. Because we stopped. We stopped flying unnecessarily, we stopped using our cars unnecessarily. We found that all those jobs where we'd been told we weren't allowed to work from home actually could be done from home. And we saw help bursting up, rising up, from every community. Mutual aid groups formed overnight, neighbours taking care of neighbours. An outpouring of love. We stayed at home, to keep everyone safe.

I feel more depressed at the desperate rush the government is in now to push things back to normal, without any real thought process as to how we could do things better. But since they are run by money & power, it's no wonder they want the economy back on its feet, rather than thinking about how society could evolve from this point to be better.

Anyway, as you can see it made me think about a lot of different things. I didn't always agree with absolutely everything in the book, but it was always interesting. I came away from it feeling more hopeful, and conscious that small acts of kindness are still worth making, because the effects can ripple out in ways we can't even imagine.

This is a fantastic read.

Bregman's premise is that humans are a pretty decent species, and not the monsters that the media portrays through dodgy reporting and dubious science. The sections where he tears into widely reported examples of human selfishness and aggression - such as the Stanford Prison Experiment, the Milgram experiment, the self-destruction of Easter Island, Kitty Genovese's murder (all of which I'd heard of and believed the established narratives) - was eye-opening and shocking, shocking in the sense that they're still being used today, decades later, in school text books.

Right now, where societal divisions are being utilised for politcal gain, and it's too easy accept that society would implode without the controlling hand of the state, it's refreshing to read that humands are better than that. Leaders have to try hard to instill the hatred that's the cancer of our current time, so when that leadership changes, there's hope for us all.

An excellent book, read it.

Over the course of my career, there have been several occasions when I have thought, 'but people aren't really like that' in response to some well-established theory or other. Particular cases in point: several motivation theories, and the rational economic man. 

In what seems a very long book (illusion: 20% is the Reference section), Bregman examines the evidence for the assumptions and beliefs that we are basically evil, and need to be trained, honed and coerced into doing anything. System by system he dissects the evidence, the root causes of our assumptions, and comes up with some basic truths. They are all too apparent in this world of Johnson-Cummings (the Machiavelli behind our so-called Prime Minister) and Trump and his cronies.

Put simply, there is a range of natural behaviour in which the norm is pretty nice, friendly and knows that co-operation works. There are extremes either side. So why are we stuck with an extreme rather than a co-operative society?  Bregman answers, supported by masses of referenced stories and debunked research papers. People with a very high sense of self-interest lie to gain power. And they are ably assisted (through the ages, not just now) by self-serving journalists and newspaper owners, who know that sensational headlines best sell papers.

It's a really good read. You will know or have heard of, at least some of these theories that shape our society. You will recognise yourself and your neighbourhood. Deep down, most of your neighbours are pretty nice, you think. If only you had the time to hang out with them and get to know them better. 

There's a huge amount of things I could say, could lift from the book, or could quote.  But the crux is, the newspapers have fed us the lies that politicians and rich landowners want us to believe. Thay way both can get richer and more powerful. The news is a drug, so get off it. More peaceful protests have succeeded in achieving real change than violent ones, but papers will only report violent ones. All the most celebrated research we have been fed showing how nasty we are has as dubious a background as the scandalous MMR vaccine/autism research. They've been fixed, in other words.

Why do I believe these things to be true, when I've just read them in a book? Because of the degree of detail the author has gone into. And yes, because it tallies with my own experiences. People are basically nice. Get to know people of different backgrounds, races, colours, creeds and preferences. Most of them are just as nice as you are. How the self-serving ones manipulate us into electing them into power is another story. 

Read Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman. It'll help you feel better, if hoodwinked throughout the generations. It might fire your soul, too.

This book could not have been published at a better time. It is filled with positive stories on the strength and unity humans are capable of. However, it paints with very broad strokes and if you scratch at the surface of most of the stories they can't hold their water. Bregman writes in a warm and conversational style about heartwarming things that give you a lift if you take them at face value.

I enjoyed this book as it was a much needed tonic for the times we are in. Genuinely hard to argue with the logic and the evidence put forth, and therefore offers a valid and inspiring argument that all is not lost and that we are (mostly) all kind, caring, cooperative and good natured at heart. There is some really fascinating information, so much so I will need to begin my own research into it. The author promotes humankind should believe in good, do good and see good in order to achieve a better world for all. We should not believe everything we are presented with, we should question the news, which is, as he states, the biggest drug around.
This book is a very easy read and a much needed tonic, especially for times we are in at the moment. (COVID 19 and lockdown)

I picked up Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman in the middle of the Covid-19 lockdown when the world was facing the biggest crisis of this generation, and the timing could not have been more perfect. For years we have been conditioned to believe that, at our core, humans are selfish and governed by self-interest. But as the virus took its toll on the world, time and time again we saw communities coming together to help one another. Acts of kindness and selflessness performed by pre-schoolers to centenarians were seen around the globe.
And yet we shouldn’t be surprised. In his book Rutger Bregman re-examines the evidence, the studies and experiments that claim to prove the worst in human nature 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.
Despite dealing with academic studies and theories by psychologists and philosophers Bregman’s compiles a compelling case that is easy to read and enables to the reader to question the narratives that have been fed to us by the media. I whole heartedly endorse the sentiments of the reviewer from the Telegraph who says ‘This is the book we need right now . . . Entertaining, uplifting . . . If Bregman is right, this book might just make the world a kinder place’

Humankind has come at an absolutely perfect time for the world. This is the perfect read for anyone struggling to find light right now, a good fit for fans of Factfulness and Sapiens.

I found this book really fascinating and have been quoting elements of it to friends and family. Some of the stories were familiar to me (I read The Tipping Point many years ago) but it was great to be reminded of them and to hear them in a different context. There were also lots of new stories and ideas. It is hugely relevant for the strange times in which we are currently living.

I teach media and English in a secondary school and will definitely be adding this title to our wider reading lists for both subjects.

Not a book I can read quickly or at one time. This quote from the beginning of the book is at the moment one of my favourites...shop bombed in blitz opened the next day with a sign saying ‘more open than usual’.

Every time I read another chapter it prompts me to read or research something else....now reading Utopia thanks to this...another delay. So I will thoroughly recommend this book even though I haven’t yet finished it.

I am thinking of it as my ongoing lockdown educator! Thank you Netgalley, publisher and author for my copy in exchange for an honest review.