Releasing a book with the subtitle “a hopeful history” during a pandemic that has led to thousands of deaths, put millions out of work and threatens to undermine the global financial system, is a brave choice.
But Dutch historian Rutger Bregman’s latest work has enough research and anecdotes to make even Hobbesian cynics feel a little less jaded about humanity — even if they may not be fully convinced by every anecdote or example that he offers.
The central theses of Humankind are that “most people, deep down, are pretty decent”. Sociability is our superpower, says Bregman, who rejects the veneer theory of humanity: that beneath a thin layer of civilisation, we are little more evolved than our “savage” ancestors. The opposite is true, he says: the institutions we associate with progress, such as nation states and private property, have fundamentally allowed for corruption.