Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman

Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman challenges a long-standing idea in Western thought: that people are naturally selfish and primarily driven by self-interest. The book traces how this belief has been reinforced across disciplines and over time, from Machiavelli and Hobbes to Freud and Dawkins, shaping headlines and influencing laws.

Bregman sets out a different argument, proposing that it is both realistic and radical to start from the assumption that people are good. He suggests that expecting the worst can help produce the worst outcomes in politics and economics. Drawing on well-known studies and events, he revisits the last 200,000 years of human history through a new lens, including the real-life Lord of the Flies, the Blitz, a Siberian fox farm, an infamous New York murder, Stanley Milgram’s Yale shock machine and the Stanford prison experiment. The result is a call for a renewed view of human nature, centred on kindness and altruism as a basis for thinking and acting towards change.

Key details

• Author: Rutger Bregman
• Book title: Humankind: A Hopeful History
• Reframes famous studies and events to offer a new perspective on human history
• Explores the idea that assuming people are good can reshape society

Synopsis

This book argues against the widely held belief that humans are selfish by nature, a view rooted in Western thought and echoed across psychology, philosophy, literature and history. Rutger Bregman re-examines major studies and notable events to propose a different starting point: that human beings are fundamentally kind and capable of altruism.

By reconsidering examples ranging from the Blitz to the Stanford prison experiment, he suggests that our assumptions about others influence politics and economics, and that a new view of human nature can underpin meaningful social change.