The Better Angels of Our Nature

A History of Declining Violence

The past is often remembered through a lens that softens its harsh realities, yet a close look at human history reveals a world saturated with violence that would be unrecognizable to the modern mind. Cultural memory tends to bleach away the bloody origins of our heritage; for example, a person wearing a cross rarely contemplates that it represents a common instrument of ancient torture. While contemporary headlines about war and terrorism make it feel as though we live in uniquely dangerous times, Steven Pinker suggests that a tour of our ancestors' lives provides a necessary sanity check. From prehistoric remains to the entertainment of the twentieth century, the evidence suggests that brutality was once a fundamental, and often celebrated, part of daily existence.

Evidence of this pervasive violence is etched into the very bones of our ancestors. When the five-thousand-year-old body of Ötzi the Iceman was discovered in the Alps, forensic evidence showed he had been murdered, with the blood of four different individuals found on his gear. Similarly, Kennewick Man, who lived over nine millennia ago, carried a stone projectile in his pelvis from a prior attack. These are not isolated incidents; bog bodies across Europe frequently show signs of ritualized "overkill"—being strangled, bludgeoned, and stabbed simultaneously. These remains suggest that in the distant past, the chance of meeting a violent end was remarkably high.

This culture of violence is vividly documented in the foundational texts of Western civilization. The Iliad and the Odyssey depict a world of total war where the goal was often the complete annihilation of a people, and women were treated as legitimate spoils of war. Heroes like Achilles and Odysseus engaged in massacres and rapes that would be classified as war crimes today, yet for the Greeks, these horrors were as inescapable as the weather, attributed to the whims of hotheaded gods rather than human failings. The Hebrew Bible, revered by billions as a moral compass, is similarly saturated with violence. It chronicles a world where God frequently orders or carries out genocide, and patriarchs from Moses to David are depicted engaging in mass killings, the enslavement of women, and the execution of children. While modern scholars view many of these accounts as fictitious, their inclusion reveals that early civilizations saw such savagery as not only acceptable but often as a divine mandate.

The Roman Empire further institutionalized cruelty as public spectacle. In the Colosseum, audiences watched as thousands of people were torn apart by animals or forced to massacre one another in mock battles. The preeminent Roman punishment, crucifixion, was an orgy of sadism designed to maximize agony over several days. Curiously, the early Christian movement adopted this instrument of execution as its primary symbol. Rather than sparking a movement against torture, early Christendom often sanctified it; martyrologies described the agonizing deaths of saints with a focus on their bravery, and the church later used systematic torture during the Inquisition as a tool for salvation, reasoning that a few hours of pain on earth was a mercy if it saved a soul from eternal fire.

As Europe moved into the medieval and early modern periods, violence remained a constant companion. The "chivalrous" knights of Arthurian legend were, in reality, warlords whose stories are filled with split skulls, severed limbs, and frequent rapes. Even the "golden age" of Elizabeth I featured a monarch who regularly ordered rivals to be drawn and quartered or burned at the stake. This brutality extended to the arts and children's entertainment; Shakespeare’s plays are famously gory, and the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales are filled with cannibalism and mutilation. Even the popular Punch and Judy puppet shows, which entertained children well into the twentieth century, featured a protagonist who casually murdered his wife and child.

A significant shift began to occur as the concept of honor evolved. For centuries, gentlemen like Alexander Hamilton felt compelled to risk their lives in duels over minor insults to their reputation. However, this institution eventually collapsed, not because of legal bans, but because it became an object of ridicule. This trend toward the delegitimization of violence continued through the twentieth century. Martial culture, once flaunted in every public square, has been replaced by memorials that emphasize mourning rather than glory. Sensibilities have shifted so dramatically that behaviors once considered normal—such as a husband threatening his wife with physical force in a sitcom or a teacher using corporal punishment—are now viewed as abhorrent. This historical trajectory suggests that we have undergone a profound psychological and cultural transformation, marking a significant, if often overlooked, victory for human security.