Steven Pinker’s ‘Enlightenment Now’ is shock therapy for pessimists

Steven Pinker's new book is shock therapy for pessimists. If you’re in a descending spiral of gloom and the reason is the state of the world, the Harvard University professor, cognitive psychologist and bestselling author has an antidote: He documents, in granular detail, that by many measures the human race is better off than before thanks to massive improvements in health, standards of living, literacy and longevity.

Bill Gates called Pinker’s Enlightenment Now: The Case For Reason, Science, Humanism And Progress (Viking) “my new favourite book of all time”, but it won’t be to everyone’s taste. It’s an impressive work of synthesis and an impassioned call for rational thinking, but it “contains something to upset almost everyone”, says an otherwise admiring New York Times review.