Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, by Steven Pinker* (Viking 2018, 576 pages, $35)
The Audacity of Hope would have been an excellent title for this book if it had not been taken already (by Barak Obama). Therefore, the following is a book review that is the first of its kind, one that has never been written before, a one-word book review that says it all: Wow!
Author Steven Pinker, a Canadian-born Harvard psychology professor, has nerve, spunk, grit, temerity and enough foolhardiness, impudence, impertinence and brashness to believe that the world is better off today than ever before - and he proves it by disproving our gut feelings (and short-term memories) with tables of data covering past centuries to support that progress (and, therefore, hope for the future). He uses social science data from various sources to argue for a general improvement of the human condition over recent history and his knowledge of nearly every field of knowledge astounds the reader who cannot believe Enlightenment was authored by just one person.
“My new favorite book of all time,” so says Bill Gates (so eloquently) and this reviewer.
Unique Writing Style: Fast-Paced
If Pinker wrote a dictionary, I would read it! Even a telephone book! Hope you are not on a diet because Pinker gives you plenty of food for thought.
Anatomy of Enlightenment (The Book)
The book is divided into three parts: enlightenment (an introductory 3 chapters that can stand alone); progress (17 chapters of data, charts and facts on 17 topics such as health, wealth, peace, democracy, terrorism, safety, life, quality of life, sustenance, inequality, the environment, equal rights, knowledge); and reason, science and humanism (tying it all together in 3 chapters). Periodically Pinker refers to other chapters and, thank goodness, he has included footnotes as well as Notes (nearly 40 pages), References (more than 35 pages), and an index.
Basically, Pinker espouses hope for the future based on the past. He wants us to use data rather than marketing, media and emotion to feel more hopeful about the future of the world at large. For example, more people die of bee stings than in plane crashes but we are not aware of this because it is not ‘sexy’ or attention-getting (my example but reminiscent of those in the book). Also, humans live longer (years longer!) than in past centuries and no longer die as much of infectious diseases like cholera and TB. We can better control our health (but often don’t).
Although the title is rather off-putting, I can’t think of a better one. And, in conclusion, this would make an excellent text book for a liberal arts college, a world history or statistics course, or a city’s Book of the Year. Even parts of it (a chapter from the beginning and one from the middle at a minimum) is enough for an evening’s topic of conversation. As a matter of fact, I hope Enlightenment Now will be abridged to make its premise more available to more people!
Who Should Read Enlightenment Now?
Enlightenment is a good fit, a good challenge for scholars and students alike, for teachers and for novices, for scientists and liberal ‘artists.’ Rather more like a science textbook than a novel you read for an English course, it cannot be read quickly – there is too much to digest.
Enlightenment is a Renaissance read – for the amateur philosopher or psychologist or even geneticist or poet or mathematician. Pinker ties together all these areas of thought and discovery and might be considered a name-dropper: if you aren’t familiar with Descartes or Pythagoras or Semmelweiss you probably have heard of Aristotle and Watson-and-Crick, and Pasteur – all are referenced as well as many more characters and worthy thinkers.
Note: I have not used my highlighter more in any other book. Neither have I dog-eared more pages!
*Catch his TED talk or listen to him on WAMU’s 1A or Talk of the Nation, Kojo Nnamdi, Steven Colbert, Marketplace, . . . check out his genome or his brain or his favorite books at stevenpinker.com (About).
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