Steven Pinker's Book Recommendations (Updated for 2026)

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1

Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society

Nicholas A. Christakis MD PhD

4.2

For too long, scientists have focused on the dark side of our biological heritage: our capacity for aggression, cruelty, prejudice, and self-interest. But natural selection has given us a suite of beneficial social features, including our capacity for love, friendship, cooperation, and learning. Beneath all of our inventions -- our tools, farms, machines, cities, nations -- we carry with us innate

Recommended by Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, Angela Duckworth, and 3 others.

Steven Pinker

Author

Nicholas Christakis is a pioneer in bridging the conceptual chasm between the choices of individual people and the shaping of an entire society. In this timely and fascinating book, he shows how the better angels of our nature, rooted in our evolutionary past, can bring forth an enlightened and compassionate civilization. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Are our similarities powerful enough to overcome our differences? “Blueprint” is an optimistic (and terrific) book that explores why humans have evolved to work together and cooperate. https://t.co/mQz07WvFgm [source]

Eric Schmidt

CEO/Google

Tribalism is all around us, but it does not have to be. After all, we are all human. In lively and engaging prose, Christakis shows what is possible, and what we must do. [source]

2

Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis

Jared Diamond

4.1

In his international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in his third book in this monumental trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crises while adopting selective changes -- a coping mechanism more commonly associated with individuals recovering from personal crises.

Diamond co

Recommended by Bill Gates, Steven Pinker, Yuval Noah Harari, and 2 others.

Steven Pinker

Author

Jared Diamond does it again: another rich, original, and fascinating chapter in the human saga, this one on how societies have extricated themselves from wicked crises-with vital lessons for our difficult times. [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

I’m a big fan of everything Jared has written, and his latest is no exception. The book explores how societies react during moments of crisis. He uses a series of fascinating case studies to show how nations managed existential challenges like civil war, foreign threats, and general malaise. It sounds a bit depressing, but I finished the book even more optimistic about our ability to solve problems than I started. [source]

Yuval Noah Harari

Historian

A riveting and illuminating tour of how nations deal with crises -- which might hopefully help humanity as a whole deal with our present global crisis. [source]

3

Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty

Roy Baumeister

4.2

Why is there evil, and what can scientific research tell us about the origins and persistence of evil behavior? Considering evil from the unusual perspective of the perpetrator, Baumeister asks, How do ordinary people find themselves beating their wives? Murdering rival gang members? Torturing political prisoners? Betraying their colleagues to the secret police? Why do cycles of revenge so often e

Recommended by Steven Pinker and Rabbi Josh Yuter.

Steven Pinker

Author

Baumeister reviews the various psychological roots of evil, and what we know about them from social psychology, history and criminology. He argues convincingly that aggression does not come from a single motive in humans, but from a variety of motives, such as practical means-end reasoning, moralistic vengeance, dominance and utopian ideologies. The widespread belief that evil acts come from evil minds is itself an interesting psychological phenomenon. Baumeister argues that the human conception of harmdoing, including violence, depends on whether one takes the viewpoint of the perpetrator or of the victim. [source]

Rabbi Josh Yuter

4. Favorite Book 1: Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty by @RoyFBaumeister. A social psychologist explores how humans perceive the concept of Evil https://t.co/JVpwbtS6pr [source]

4

Replenish: The Virtuous Cycle of Water and Prosperity

Sandra Postel

4.5

We have disrupted the natural water cycle for centuries in an effort to control water for our own prosperity. Yet every year, recovery from droughts and floods costs billions of dollars, and we spend billions more on dams, diversions, levees, and other feats of engineering. These massive projects not only are risky financially and environmentally, they often threaten social and political stability

Recommended by Steven Pinker.

Steven Pinker

Author

Replenish by Sandra Postel: New & interesting book on water management & conservation #earthoptimism #ecomodernism. https://t.co/orpoi74ldk [source]

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5

Farsighted: How We Make the Decisions That Matter the Most

Steven Johnson

3.9

The hardest choices are also the most consequential. So why do we know so little about how to get them right?

Big, life-altering decisions matter so much more than the decisions we make every day, and they're also the most difficult: where to live, whom to marry, what to believe, whether to start a company, how to end a war. There's no one-size-fits-all approach for addressing these kinds of conund

Recommended by Steven Pinker and Tim O'Reilly.

Steven Pinker

Author

Steven B. Johnson is one of our most insightful analysts of technology, science, and culture. Interesting piece today, adapted from his forthcoming book, on making decisions (with a priceless quote from my intellectual hero Thomas Schelling). https://t.co/lxE90dCy56 [source]

Tim O'Reilly

Founder/O'Reilly Media

A lovely little teaser from @stevenbjohnson’s brilliant book Farsighted. The book is a must-read! https://t.co/A4Q9sDJ96k [source]

6

The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do, Revised and Updated

Judith Rich Harris

4.3

This groundbreaking book, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times notable pick, rattled the psychological establishment when it was first published in 1998 by claiming that parents have little impact on their children's development. In this tenth anniversary edition of The Nurture Assumption, Judith Harris has updated material throughout and provided a fresh introduction.

Combining insights fr

Recommended by Steven Pinker and Sue Palmer.

Steven Pinker

Author

This debate was catalyzed by Judith Rich Harris's brilliant book The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do (based in part on research by Plomin, one of the debaters, and other behavioral geneticists). https://t.co/Oxr3kkGUHB via @amazon [source]

Sue Palmer

Judith Rich Harris looks at the idea that a child who can only socialise with adults is at a disadvantage. [source]

7

36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

3.7

Equally adept at fiction (a winner of the National Jewish Book Award) and philosophy (a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation genius prize), Rebecca Newberger Goldstein now gives us a novel that transforms the great debate between faith and reason into an exhilarating romance of both heart and mind.
At the center: Cass Seltzer, a professor of psychology whose book, The Varieties of Religious Illus

Recommended by Steven Pinker and Susan Jacoby.

Steven Pinker

Author

When it came out 10 years ago I said it was the best book either of us had ever written. Authors are always proudest of their latest, but this remains a masterpiece: Thirty-Six Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction by Rebecca Goldstein https://t.co/YAcLw7TUE3 [source]

Susan Jacoby

This is a novel. It’s about a professor who has written a book about atheism, and how religion and atheism play out in everyday life. It shows the thought processes of atheism and religion, what they do and don’t have in common. One of the thing that’s interesting about it is that the author, Rebecca Goldstein, was raised in a highly orthodox, Jewish Hasidic household and this background makes its appearance in this book in ways that I won’t give away. But it’s a very fun book and there are very few novels with atheist characters who are presented in any of a kind of a positive or interesting way, so I think anyone who picks it up will enjoy it. Rebecca Goldstein is absolutely brilliant and, I might add, one of the few women writers on atheism, which is a whole other problem we can talk about some other time. [source]

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8

Disordered Minds: How Dangerous Personalities Are Destroying Democracy

Ian Hughes

4.7

Disordered Minds offers a compelling and timely account of the dangers posed by narcissistic leaders, and provides a stark warning that the conditions in which this psychopathy flourishes - extremes of social inequality and a culture of hyper-individualism - are the hallmarks of our present age. 'An excellent account of how malignant narcissism is evident in the lives of the great dictators, and h

Recommended by Steven Pinker.

Steven Pinker

Author

In a fascinating forthcoming book, Ian Hughes shows how narcissistic paranoid psychopaths gravitate to positions of power, w disastrous consequences. Institutions (particularly liberal democracy) are needed to constrain the dark side of human nature. https://t.co/x0JuDgj4oc [source]

9

Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength

Roy F. Baumeister, John Tierney

4.2

One of the world's most esteemed and influential psychologists, Roy F. Baumeister, teams with New York Times science writer John Tierney to reveal the secrets of self-control and how to master it. In Willpower, the pioneering researcher Roy F. Baumeister collaborates with renowned New York Times science writer John Tierney to revolutionize our understanding of the most coveted human virtue: self-

Recommended by Dan Ariely, David Allen, Steven Pinker, and 1 others.

Steven Pinker

Author

The psychologist Roy F. Baumeister has shown that the force metaphor has a kernel of neurobiological reality. In Willpower, he has teamed up with the irreverent New York Timesscience columnist John Tierney to explain this ingenious research and show how it can enhance our lives. . . . Willpower is an immensely rewarding book, filled with ingenious research, wise advice and insightful reflections on the human condition. [source]

Dan Ariely

Author

Willpower affects almost every aspect of our lives. From procrastination, to saving for retirement to exercising, Tierney and Baumeister have given us a wonderful book in which they not only share fascinating research on the subject but also provide simple tricks to help us tap into this important quality. [source]

David Allen

Author

Who knew that a book about such a daunting topic could be as wonderfully entertaining as it is enlightening! Tierney and Baumeister have produced a highly intelligent work full of fascinating information (and great advice) about a core element of modern living. Bravo. [source]

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10

The Importance of Being Little: What Young Children Really Need from Grownups

Erika Christakis

4.1

"Christakis . . . expertly weaves academic research, personal experience and anecdotal evidence into her book . . . a bracing and convincing case that early education has reached a point of crisis . . . her book is a rare thing: a serious work of research that also happens to be well-written and personal . . . engaging and important."
--Washington Post

"What kids need from grown-ups (but aren't ge

Recommended by Steven Pinker, Daniel Gilbert, and Ng Rong Xin.

Steven Pinker

Author

As the experts have bombarded parents with contradictory and ever more demanding advice, childrearing has become more confusing than ever, and the children themselves seem to have been left out of the picture. Parents, caregivers, teachers, and policy makers could have no surer guide through this morass than Erika Christakis. With scientific acumen, irreverent good sense, and a novelist’s eye for human detail, Christakis offers us a judicious view of the new and old realities of bringing up children. [source]

Daniel Gilbert

Author

Teach your children well. It’s easier to sing than to do. Erika Christakis wants to foment a revolution in early childhood education, and with this deeply insightful, scientifically grounded, and utterly original book, she just may get her way. [source]

Ng Rong Xin

The Importance of being Little: What Young Children Really Need from Grownups by Erika Christakis - It’s a good read for anyone who wants to be a educator. [source]

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11

Homicide: Foundations of Human Behavior

Martin Daly

4.3

The human race spends a disproportionate amount of attention, money, and expertise in solving, trying, and reporting homicides, as compared to other social problems. The public avidly consumes accounts of real-life homicide cases, and murder fiction is more popular still. Nevertheless, we have only the most rudimentary scientific understanding of who is likely to kill whom and why. Martin Daly and

Recommended by Steven Pinker.

Steven Pinker

Author

It is one of two books that first excited me about evolutionary psychology. The other was Donald Symons’s The Evolution of Human Sexuality. Homicide is a cornucopia of insights into human nature. The husband-and-wife team of Martin Daly and Margo Wilson were not so much interested in homicide itself as they were in human conflict – how the life goals of one person can clash with the life goals of another. They reasoned that homicides are the most extreme manifestation of violence, and that violence is the most extreme manifestation of conflict. As they put it in the book’s first sentence, “Killing one’s antagonist is the ultimate conflict resolution technique, and our ancestors discovered it long before they were people.” [source]

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12

Statistics Of Deadly Quarrels

Lewis F. Richardson, Quincy Wright, C. C. Lienau

4.0

Recommended by Steven Pinker.

Steven Pinker

Author

This gem is out of print and hard to find, but it is revered among scholars who study war and genocide quantitatively. Richardson was an applied physicist who treated war as a statistical phenomenon. Writing in the early 1950s, when the ashes of World War II were still warm, the Cold War was in full swing and the nuclear arms race was underway, he defied every historian and pundit and wrote, “A long future may perhaps be coming without a third world war in it.” A half-century later, we know that the number-cruncher was right and the eminent historians were wrong. [source]

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13

Violent Land: Single Men & Social Disorder from the Frontier to the Inner City

David T. Courtwright

3.6

This book offers an explosive look at violence in America--why it is so prevalent, and what and who are responsible. David Courtwright takes the long view of his subject, developing the historical pattern of violence and disorder in this country. Where there is violent and disorderly behavior, he shows, there are plenty of men, largely young and single. What began in the mining camp and bunkhouse

Recommended by Steven Pinker.

Steven Pinker

Author

Why is America so much more violent than other democracies? Why is the American South and Southwest so much more violent than the rest of the country? Why are African-Americans more violent than Americans of European descent? Courtwright takes on these puzzles in a rich narrative which weaves American history with evolutionary psychology and neurobiology. [source]

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14

The Remnants of War

John Mueller

4.0

"War... is merely an idea, an institution, like dueling or slavery, that has been grafted onto human existence. It is not a trick of fate, a thunderbolt from hell, a natural calamity, or a desperate plot contrivance dreamed up by some sadistic puppeteer on high. And it seems to me that the institution is in pronounced decline, abandoned as attitudes toward it have changed, roughly following the pa

Recommended by Steven Pinker.

Steven Pinker

Author

Not only is Mueller unfailingly insightful as a political analyst, but he is a stylish writer with a sardonic wit. In several books he has argued that war between states, particularly war between developed states, is almost obsolete. Though civil wars and clashes between militias persist, they shade into organised crime, and do far less human damage than two organised states mustering their might to destroy each other. Mueller first made this argument in the late 1980s, before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. He deserves credit for noticing the trend before it had come to fruition. He has been vindicated by statistics on wars in the decades since, which have shown that, in contrast to millennia of recorded history, today there are few wars between states and no wars between developed states. [source]