Humankind

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A beacon of hope for a frighted world' DANNY DORLING 'This is the book we need right now' TELEGRAPH 'It'd be no surprise if it proved to be the Sapiens of 2020' GUARDIAN It's a belief that unites the left and right, psychologists and philosophers, writers and historians. It drives the headlines that surround us and the laws that touch our lives. From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Dawkins, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought. Human beings, we're taught, are by nature selfish and governed by self-interest. Humankind makes a new argument: that it is realistic, as well as revolutionary, to assume that people are good. The instinct to cooperate rather than compete, trust rather than distrust, has an evolutionary basis going right back to the beginning of Homo sapiens. By...