List of illustrations viii
List of contributors ix
Preface xiv
1. Steven Pinker and the nature of violence in history
by Mark S. Micale 1
Part 1 Interpretations 21
2. The inner demons of The Better Angels of Our Nature
by Daniel Lord Smail 23
3. Pinker and the use and abuse of statistics in writing the history of violence
by Dag Lindström 39
4. Progress and its contradictions: Human rights, inequality and violence
by Eric D. Weitz 57
5. Pinker's technocratic neoliberalism, and why it matters
by David A. Bell 73
6. Steven Pinker, Norbert Elias and The Civilizing Process
by Elizabeth Roberts-Pedersen 87
Part 2 Periods 105
7. Steven Pinker's 'prehistoric anarchy': A bioarchaeological critique
by Linda Fibiger 107
8. Getting medieval on Steven Pinker: Violence and medieval England
by Sara M. Butler 125
9. History, violence and the Enlightenment
by Philip Dwyer 142
Part 2 Places 161
10. The complexity of history: Russia and Steven Pinker's thesis
by Nancy Shields Kollmann 163
11. A necrology of angels: Violence in Japanese history as a lens of critique
by Michael Wert 176
12. British imperial violence and the Middle East
by Caroline Elkins 197
Part 4 Themes 219
13. A history of violence and indigeneity: Pinker and the Native Americas
by Matthew Restall 221
14. The rise and rise of sexual violence
by Joanna Bourke 236
15. Where angels fear to tread: Racialized policing, mass incarceration and executions as state violence in the post-civil rights era
by Robert T. Chase 252
16. The better angels of which nature?: Violence and environmental history in the modern world
by Corey Ross 273
17. On cool reason and hot-blooded impulses: Violence and the history of emotion
by Susan K. Morrissey 293
Part 5 Coda 315
18. Pinker and contemporary historical consciousness
by Mark S. Micale 317
Bibliography 337
Index 374