Recommended: A History of Violence

I recommend Steven Pinker's recent essay A History of Violence. He dissects the myth that our present day culture has made us more violent than our distant ancestors. In fact, civilization has become less violent over time, though sometimess with one step backward for each two steps forward. But it is true that cruelties that were commonplace in earlier times are no longer acceptable these days, at least in the more advanced states of the Western world, and that is substantial progress.